How to trim the list in python

This post will discuss how to remove the last element from a list in Python.

1. Using list.pop() function

The simplest approach is to use the list’s pop([i]) function, which removes an element present at the specified position in the list. If we don’t specify any index, pop() removes and returns the last element in the list.

if__name__=='__main__':

    l =list(range(1,5))

    print(l)    # [1, 2, 3, 4]

    l.pop()

    print(l)    # [1, 2, 3]

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The pop([i]) function raises an IndexError if the list is empty as it tries to pop from an empty list.

2. Using Slicing

We know that lists can be sliced in Python. We can use slicing to remove the last element from a list. The idea is to obtain a sublist containing all elements of the list except the last one. Since slice operation returns a new list, we have to assign the new list to the original list. This can be done using the expression l = l[:-1], where l is your list. l[:-1] is short for l[0:len(l)-1].

if__name__=='__main__':

    l =list(range(1,5))

    print(l)    # [1, 2, 3, 4]

    l= l[:-1]

    print(l)    # [1, 2, 3]

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Note that this function doesn’t raise any error on an empty list but constructs a copy of the list, which is not recommended.

3. Using del statement

Another way to remove an element from a list using its index is the del statement. It differs from the pop() function as it does not return the removed element. Unlike the slicing function, this doesn’t create a new list.

if__name__=='__main__':

    l =list(range(1,5))

    print(l)    # [1, 2, 3, 4]

    del l[-1]

    print(l)    # [1, 2, 3]

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The above code raises an IndexError if the list is empty since it tries to access an index of the list which is out of range.

That’s all about removing the last element from a list in Python.


Thanks for reading.

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You just subindex it with [:5] indicating that you want (up to) the first 5 elements.

>>> [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8][:5][1, 2, 3, 4, 5]>>> [1,2,3][:5][1, 2, 3]>>> x = [6,7,8,9,10,11,12]>>> x[:5][6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Also, putting the colon on the right of the number means count from the nth element onwards -- don't forget that lists are 0-based!

>>> x[5:][11, 12]


How do you trim data in a list in Python?

Python Trim String.
strip(): returns a new string after removing any leading and trailing whitespaces including tabs ( \t )..
rstrip(): returns a new string with trailing whitespace removed. ... .
lstrip(): returns a new string with leading whitespace removed, or removing whitespaces from the “left” side of the string..

How do I reduce the size of a list in Python?

Python offers a function called reduce() that allows you to reduce a list in a more concise way. The reduce() function applies the fn function of two arguments cumulatively to the items of the list, from left to right, to reduce the list into a single value.

Can you slice a list Python?

In short, slicing is a flexible tool to build new lists out of an existing list. Python supports slice notation for any sequential data type like lists, strings, tuples, bytes, bytearrays, and ranges.

Can you slice a list?

As well as using slicing to extract part of a list (i.e. a slice on the right hand sign of an equal sign), you can set the value of elements in a list by using a slice on the left hand side of an equal sign. In python terminology, this is because lists are mutable objects, while strings are immutable.