Python 13.3 : Clarifications on slices

Python is a popular programming language that is widely used for a variety of tasks, including data analysis, machine learning, and web development. One of the key features of Python is its ability to work with slices, which are subsets of lists, tuples, and other sequences. However, there are some clarifications that need to be made about how slices work in Python.

Firstly, it's important to note that slices in Python are inclusive of the start index and exclusive of the end index. This means that if you want to slice a list from index 1 to index 4, you would use the syntax myList[1:4], which would return elements at indices 1, 2, and 3.

Another important point to keep in mind is that slices in Python are always valid, even if the start or end index is out of range. For example, if you try to slice a list from index 10 to index 20, Python will simply return an empty list.

It's also worth noting that you can use negative indices to slice from the end of a sequence. For example, myList[-3:-1] would return the second-to-last and last elements of the list.

Finally, it's important to understand that slices in Python create new objects, rather than modifying the original sequence. This means that if you slice a list and modify the slice, the original list will remain unchanged.

Overall, slices are a powerful and versatile feature of Python that allow you to work with subsets of sequences in a flexible and efficient way.