Python List Methods With Syntax and Examples

This tutorial will teach the most common Python list methods with syntax and examples.

A list is a built-in data type used to store multiple data items in a single variable. The list is ordered mutable and heterogeneous data structure. A list in Python is created by enclosing data items in square brackets.

Items in the list are stored in an ordered way. They can be extracted using the index, i.e., the element’s position. Items/elements in a list are mutable. We can perform modifications to a defined list. i.e., insertion, deletion, updation, etc.

Items in the list are of type heterogeneous. A list accepts items/elements of different types.

Below is a simple program to create a list of elements.

programming_lang=['C','Java','Python']
print(programming_lang)

Output

[‘C’, ‘Java’, ‘Python’]

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Python List Methods With Syntax and Examples

S. No.	Method	Description
1.	index()	Returns the first occurrence of a specific element in a list.
2.	max()	Get the maximum value in a list.
3.	min()	Fetch the minimum value in a list.
4.	len()	Count the total number of items in a list.
5.	insert()	Add an element to a specific index in a list.
6.	append()	Add an element at the end of a list.
7.	extend()	Insert elements at the end of a list.
8.	pop()	Removes an element at the specified index position.
9.	remove()	Removes the first occurrence of a specified element.
10.	clear()	Remove all elements from a list.
11.	sort()	Sorts all list items in ascending order.
12.	reverse()	Reverse all elements in a list.
13.	count()	Returns the count of occurrences of a specified element in a list.
14.	copy()	Copy the content of a list to a new list.

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The below-mentioned methods are the built-in list of methods available in Python.

1. index() method

The index() method returns the first appearance of a specified element in the list.

Code:

programming_lang=['C','Java','Python']
print(programming_lang.index('Python'))

Output:

2

Note: Index starts from 0 in the list. So the element “Python” is present in 3rd position and index value = position-1. Hence index method returns 2.

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2. max() method

The max() method returns the maximum value present in a list.

Code:

numbers=[1,2,10,20,5]
print(max(numbers))

Output:

1

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3. min() method

The min() method returns the minimum value present in a list.

Code:

numbers=[1,2,10,20,5]
print(min(numbers))

Output:

1

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4. len() method

The len() method returns the total number of elements in the list.

Code:

numbers=[1,2,10,20]
print(len(numbers))

Output:

4

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5. insert() method

The insert() method adds the element to the list at the required/specified index.

Code:

numbers=[1,2,10,20]
numbers.insert(2,5)
print(numbers)

Output:

[1, 2, 5, 10, 20]

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6. append() method

The append() method adds the specified element at the end of the list.

Code:

numbers=[1,2,10,20]
numbers.append(5)
print(numbers)

Output:

[1, 2, 10, 20, 5]

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7. extend() method

The extend() method adds the multiple elements specified at the end of the list.

Code:

numbers=[1,2,10,20]
numbers.extend([3,30])
print(numbers)

Output:

[1, 2, 10, 20, 3, 30]

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8. pop() method

The pop() method removes the element at the specified index position. If the index position is not specified by default, the pop() method removes the last element and returns the popped-out element.

Code:

numbers=[1,2,10,20]
numbers.pop(2)
print(numbers)
numbers.pop()
print(numbers)

Output:

[1, 2, 20]
[1, 2]

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9. remove() method

The remove() method removes the first occurrence of a specified element.

Code:

numbers=[1,2,10,20]
numbers.remove(10)
print(numbers)

Output:

[1, 2, 20]

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10. clear() method

The clear() method removes all elements from the list.

Code:

numbers=[1,2,10,20]
numbers.clear()
print(numbers)

Output:

[]

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11. sort() method

The sort() method sorts the elements in the list. By default, it sorts the elements in the list in ascending order. The syntax of sort() method is-

listName.sort(reverse=True|False)

Code:

numbers=[1,20,10,2]
#Ascending order
numbers.sort()
print(numbers)
#descending order
numbers.sort(reverse=True)
print(numbers)

Output:

[1, 2, 10, 20]
[20, 10, 2, 1]

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12. reverse() method

The reverse() method reverses the elements in the list.

Code:

numbers=[1,20,10,2]


# reverse the elements in list
numbers.reverse()
print(numbers)

Output:

[2, 10, 20, 1]

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13. count() method

The count() method returns the count of occurrences of a specified element in the list.

Code

names=['Himanshu','Akhil','Himanshu']


# find the occurrences of string Himanshu
print(names.count('Himanshu'))

Output
2

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14. copy() method

The copy() method copies the content in the list and is used to make a new list with the copied content.

Code

names=['Himanshu','Akhil','Himanshu']


copied_names=names.copy()
print(copied_names)

Output

[‘Himanshu’, ‘Akhil’, ‘Himanshu’]

The above-mentioned methods are a few practical built-in methods while processing the list’s data.