Python: Split a list into sub-lists based on index ranges

In python, it's called slicing. Here is an example of python's slice notation:

>>> list1 = ['a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l']
>>> print list1[:5]
['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']
>>> print list1[-7:]
['f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l']

Note how you can slice either positively or negatively. When you use a negative number, it means we slice from right to left.


Note that you can use a variable in a slice:

l = ['a',' b',' c',' d',' e']
c_index = l.index("c")
l2 = l[:c_index]

This would put the first two entries of l in l2


If you already know the indices:

list1 = ['x','y','z','a','b','c','d','e','f','g']
indices = [(0, 4), (5, 9)]
print [list1[s:e+1] for s,e in indices]

Note that we're adding +1 to the end to make the range inclusive...