Subtracting 2 lists in Python

If this is something you end up doing frequently, and with different operations, you should probably create a class to handle cases like this, or better use some library like Numpy.

Otherwise, look for list comprehensions used with the zip builtin function:

[a_i - b_i for a_i, b_i in zip(a, b)]

Here's an alternative to list comprehensions. Map iterates through the list(s) (the latter arguments), doing so simulataneously, and passes their elements as arguments to the function (the first arg). It returns the resulting list.

import operator
map(operator.sub, a, b)

This code because has less syntax (which is more aesthetic for me), and apparently it's 40% faster for lists of length 5 (see bobince's comment). Still, either solution will work.