Sequence DataType Part - II [Indexing]

Sequence data operations: Indexing

Indexing just means accessing elements. To access elements, the square brackets can be used. There 

are many methods to access elements in python.

index() method finds the first occurrence of the specified value and returns its position 

Syntax: object.index(sub[, start[, end]] ), object[index]

•   Index of the element is used to access an element from ordered sequences

•   The index starts from 0

•   Negative indexing is used to access elements from the end of a list

•   In negative indexing, the last element of a list has the index -1

String Indexing

The first let us look at what string data type is. A string is a sequence of one or more characters, for example, it can contain letters, numbers and symbols and that can be either a constant or variable. And strings are basically a mutable sequence in Python. So, to create a string we can close a sequence of characters inside single, double or triple quotes. Let us see an example on creating string. Create string includes A sequence of characters inside single, double or triple quotes. I am creating the string called strsample and it has a sequence of characters which describes the word learning and storing that on two variable called strsample. So that becomes a string. So we can print out strings by simply calling the print function. So when we print the string strsample will be getting an output call learning. So the strsample is now a string.

List Indexing

So let us move to the next sequence data that is called list.So here I am just going to illustrate you the indexing part using the list sequenced data. So syntax

is given here you can use the list name and you can use the index function. And inside the

function we can just give the element for which you want to find the position. So I have already

created a list call list lstsample which has few elements to it. It has both numbers and strings and

to find the index of the element sam I can use the index method.

Inside the method I can just give the element sam. So that gives me an output three because

index corresponds to Sam is 3. The index corresponds to 1 is 0 and the index corresponds 2 is 1

and index corresponds to a is 2 and index corresponds to sam is 3. But if you are going to find

the element corresponding to a given index, then you can get that using square brackets. So let us

just try that I am using lissample of two inside the square bracket.

So it is going to give me an element which response to the index 2 which is nothing but a here.

Similarly you can access any elements from the end of a list as well using the negative indexing.

So if I give lissample of -1 is going to give me the last element of the list lissample. So which is

nothing but 2.

Array Indexing 

Similarly we can perform the indexing on an array. So we have already seen how to create an

array. So let us just use the same example. So I print out the values of array. The array sample

has values 1, 2, 3 and 4. So, here I just have an example to show you how you can perform the

negative index on this array. I am accessing the third last element of the array so it is going to

give me the value 2 which is nothing but the third last element of the array.

And similarly we can perform that on a tuple. So you can use the index method to find the

position of the given elements. So let me just use py so the index of py is 5. So here I am just

trying to find the element which responds to the second index which is 3 here. So, let us see how

the indexing works in set.

So we were already created a set sample which has example 24, 87.5 data 24 and data as

element to it. I am trying to use an index call 4 which gives me an error saying set object is not

subscriptable which means that you cannot perform the indexing operation set. As we know that

set is container to hold non sequential data. You will not be able to access the elements inside the

set using indexing.

Dictionary Indexing

So next we are going to see how we can perform indexing on a dictionary. So, Python dictionary

object provides a key-value pair facility. So the values in the dictionary are indexed by keys and

they are not held in any order. So, if you want to access the values from the dictionary then you

can access them by using their keys. So we have dictionary called dict sample which we have

already created which has keys as one second 3 and 4 and it also has a key value corresponding

to it.

For example first, 2, 3 and 4 so now let us see what happens when you are trying to access an

element using a index I am using index say for example that is 2 it gives you the key error that is

2 as we know that values in a dictionary or indexed by keys. So you will be able to access them

using keys not using the index. So now I am using key inside my square braces. So I am going to

get a value corresponding to the key that is 1.

So the value corresponding to the key one is first and as we know that he can may be a string or

integer value. So key can either have string as well as a integer. So here I have a key called

second so I will be able to access the value corresponding to the key second. So I am getting

output as 2. So, the value corresponding to key second is 2.

Range Indexing

So the last one example which is the last one is to illustrate the indexing using range. So we have

already created range sample which contains a value is 1, 5 and 9. So, you should be using an

appropriate value which is already there in your range if you are trying to give you a value which

is not in the range then it is going to throw you a value error. We are trying to check the index

corresponding to the value zero.

But in our case the range sample does not have the value 0 at all because it has only the values 1,

5, 9 in that case it throws a value error. So it says zero is not in range. But if you are trying to

find the position of the given element that is 9 here you will be able to do that because we

already have a range value that is 9 and it gives you the position of that particular element that is

2 and we can also get the elements given the index.

So, given the index as one, so it give the output as 5 because the index corresponding to the

value one is zero and the index corresponding to the value 5 is 1. But if you are trying to give the

index which is out of range then it is also going to throw you an error saying index error because

you have an error in the given index that is why the error says it is index error and saying range

object index out of range. Because you do not have any element corresponding to the index 9

that is, why the error says index error.

Join us: https://t.me/jupyter_python

Like us: https://www.facebook.com/pirawenpython