I have recently started learning python and am currently on fundamentals so please accept my excuse if this question sounds silly. I am a little confused with the indexing behavior of the list while I was learning the bubble sort algorithm. For example: code
my_list = [8,10,6,2,4]
for i in range(len(my_list)):
print(my_list[i])
for i in range(len(my_list)):
print(i)
Result:
8 10 6 2 4
0 1 2 3 4
The former for loop gave elements of the list (using indexing) while the latter provided its position, which is understandable. But when I'm experimenting with adding (-1) i.e. print (my_list[i-1]) and print(i-1) in both the for loops, I expect -1 to behave like a simple negative number and subtract a value from the indexed element in the first for loop i.e. 8-1=7
Rather, it's acting like a positional indicator of the list of elements and giving the last index value 4.
I was expecting this result from the 2nd loop. Can someone please explain to me why the print(my_list[i-1]) is actually changing the list elements selection but not actually subtracting value 1 from the list elements itself i.e. [8(-1), 10(-1), 6(-1)...
Thank you in advance.
The list index in the expression my_list[i-1] is the part between the brackets, i.e. i-1. So by subtracting in there, you are indeed modifying the index. If instead you want to modify the value in the list, that is, what the index is pointing at, you would use my_list[i] - 1. Now, the subtraction comes after the retrieval of the list value.