Python Print List Without First Element

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5/5 - (2 votes)

To print a list without its first element, you can pass the result of slicing expression my_list[1:] into the print() function. This slices from the second list element to the last one. Note that the start index in the slicing notation [start:stop] is included in the output of the slicing operation. If the stop index is not provided like here, it means “slice all the way to the end”.

Here’s a simple example that prints the list without the first element 'Alice' using slicing:

lst = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Carl', 'Dave']
print(lst[1:])
# ['Bob', 'Carl', 'Dave']

Note that this approach even works if the list is empty, so it doesn’t have a first element:

lst = []
print(lst[1:])
# []

Beautiful, isn’t it? ❤️

💡 Recommended Tutorial: An Introduction to Python Slicing

The Ultimate Guide to Slicing in Python

I strongly believe this slicing approach print(my_list[1:]) is the most Pythonic, most concise, and most efficient way to solve this problem so I won’t provide any additional methods that would only be inferior.

On other websites, I have seen approaches like removing the first element from the list using pop() and printing it afterward. But this is not a great way to solve the problem because it has side effects. Also, it’s less efficient.

👉 Related Tutorials: ⤵️

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