How to reverse a list in Python

Christian Barra

@christianbarra

How to reverse a list using the square brackets notation with #Python? #europython

11:00 AM - 25 Jul 2018

8 28

Reversing a list in Python is really, really easy.

This doesn't apply only to list but to sequence in general (string and tuple for example).

msg = "hello there"
print(msg[::-1])
# ereht olleh

my_tuple = (1, 2, 3)
print(my_tuple[::-1])
# (3, 2, 1)

The secret behind this magic? The slice object.

name = "christian"
print(name.__getitem__(slice(None, None, -1)))
# 'naitsirhc'

While old I really recommend reading the Python 2.3 What's new, when the support for built-in types was introduced.