Accessing The Index Of Iterables In Python

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Summary: To access the index of iterables like lists in Python, use one of the following methods:

Introduction

An index can be considered as the position of an element in an ordered datatype (like a list or tuple). A string can be considered as a list of characters with each character having an index.

  • Indexing starts from zero to the length-1.
  • Python also supports negative indexing.

Let’s visualize indexing with the help of a diagram.

From the above example, it is quite clear that:

  • The length of the string is 23 while the indexing starts at 0 and ends at 22.
  • Negative Indexing starts from the end of the string with -1 and ends at the beginning of the string (-23).

Now that we have an idea about indexes, let us dive into our mission-critical question:

Problem: Give a list; how to access the index of each element of the list using a loop or any other method?

Example 1: Consider the program given below which contains a list of numbers. We want to extract the each number along with it’s index as shown below:

items = [100, 200, 300, 400, 500]
for i in items:
    print('item #{} = {}'.format(???, i))

Desired Output

item #0 = 100
item #1 = 200
item #2 = 300
item #3 = 400
item #4 = 500

Now let us have a look at the different ways of doing this:

Method 1 : Using enumerate() function

The most effective way of finding the index of elements in a list is to use an inbuilt Python function known as enumerate(). This method accepts an iterable (like a list, tuple) adds a counter to it, and then returns it as an object.

enumerate(iterable, start) : Syntax for the enumerate() method.

Note: Indexing starts at 0 in Python, so you must define a start number in case you want to use a different number as the starting index.

Let us have a look at the following program to understand how we can use this method to find the indexes of the elements in the list :

items = [100, 200, 300, 400, 500]
for index, item in enumerate(items, start=1):
    print('item #{0} = {1}'.format(index, item))

Output:

item #1 = 100
item #2 = 200
item #3 = 300
item #4 = 400
item #5 = 500

Method 2: Using A Counter Variable And A For Loop

You can create a for loop using a variable to store the index and access the elements of the list using this variable. Let us have a look at the following program to understand how this works:

items = [100, 200, 300, 400, 500]
for i in range(len(items)):
    print(f'item #{i + 1} = {items[i]}')

Output:

item #1 = 100
item #2 = 200
item #3 = 300
item #4 = 400
item #5 = 500

Method 3: Using A While Loop And A Counter Variable

Just like the for loop, we can also use a while loop to create a counter variable to hold the indexes of the elements and then access the elements of the list using this variable. Let us have a look at the following program to understand how this works:

items = [100, 200, 300, 400, 500]
i = 0
while i <= len(items):
    print(f'item #{i + 1} = {items[i]}')
    i += 1

Output:

item #1 = 100
item #2 = 200
item #3 = 300
item #4 = 400
item #5 = 500

Method 4: Using a List Comprehension

Let us have a look at the Python one-liner to solve our problem using a list comprehension:

items = [100, 200, 300, 400, 500]
[print(f"item #{index + 1} = {items[index]}") for index, item in enumerate(items)]

Output:

item #1 = 100
item #2 = 200
item #3 = 300
item #4 = 400
item #5 = 500

Method 5: Using Itertools Module

We can use the count() and zip() functions of the itertools module to find the index of the given item.

  1. count() is an inbuilt function of the itertools module that is used to create an iterator and produces consecutive integers based on the given start and step attribute values.
  2. zip() is another inbuilt function of the itertools module that accepts an iterable as an argument which can be a list, tuple, file, dictionary, etc. It combines the elements of several iterators and stores them into tuples.

Now let us see how we can apply the above concept in our solution:

from itertools import count

items = [100, 200, 300, 400, 500]
for i in zip(count(start=1, step=1), items):
    print(i)

Output

(1, 100)
(2, 200)
(3, 300)
(4, 400)
(5, 500)

Method 6: Using the NumPy Library

Another approach to find indices is to use the numpy library. You might be wondering why should you use an external library to find an index of an element in a list. Does that even make any sense? Yes, it does. You will not find this method effective in case of simple scenarios, however, in situations where you need to perform complex operations using indexes, numpy is the most efficient solution in such scenarios. NumPy is almost 50 times faster than traditional lists and that’s why it needs an honorable mention in the list of our suggested solutions.

To understand the power of NumPy let us consider a different example where you have to find the index of a given number in a collection. Please follow the code given below:

import numpy as np

items = [500, 200, 500, 400, 500]
value = 500
# numpy.where() function returns the indices of elements in an input array where the given condition is satisfied.
index = np.where(np.array(items) == value)[0]
print(f'item {value} is located at INDEX: {index}')

Output:

item 500 is located at INDEX: [0 2 4]

One might argue that the above solution could be reached via other methods too. However, the effectiveness and ease with which NumPy resolves our issue makes it a good option.

Conclusion

Thus, in this article the solutions described above included the following methods:

  1. Using enumerate() function.
  2. Using a counter variable with For Loop/While Loop.
  3. Using a list comprehension.
  4. Using itertools module.
  5. Using the NumPy library.

I hope after reading this article you can find indices of items in lists or arrays without any hassle. Please subscribe and stay tuned for more interesting articles.

👉 Recommended Tutorial: Accessing an Element from a Generator in Python

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