Range and Xrange in Python

Range function in Python can be used to generate a range of values.

Example if we call range(10), we will get values 0 to 10 in a list.

If we call range (1,11), we will get values 1 to 10 in a list.

Let us look at a few examples to understand better.

Python Code :
range(5)

Output :
[1,2,3,4]

Python Code :
range(2,7)

Output :
[2.3,4,5,6]

Python Code :
range(1, 10, 2)

Output:
[1,3,5,7,9]

In above example, we only printed odd numbers. We could do that by passing a third increment parameter to range.

xrange function is similar to range function. But it is very efficient for large sets.When range is invoked, it creates a static list and returns the result.

However with xrange, it gives a pointer and only gives the next value on demand when iterating over the list. This can prevent out of memory errors.

Python Code :
list(xrange(5))

Output :
[1,2,3,4]