# Negative indexing
>>> a = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
>>> a[-1]
10
>>> a[-3]
8
# List slices (a[start:end])
>>> a = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
>>> a[2:8]
[2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
# List slices with negative indexing
>>> a = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
>>> a[-4:-2]
[7, 8]
# List slices with step (a[start:end:step])
>>> a = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
>>> a[::2]
[0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10]
>>> a[::3]
[0, 3, 6, 9]
>>> a[2:8:2]
[2, 4, 6]
# List slices with negative step
>>> a = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
>>> a[::-1]
[10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0]
>>> a[::-2]
[10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0]
# List slice assignment
>>> a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> a[2:3] = [0, 0]
>>> a
[1, 2, 0, 0, 4, 5]
>>> a[1:1] = [8, 9]
>>> a
[1, 8, 9, 2, 0, 0, 4, 5]
>>> a[1:-1] = []
>>> a
[1, 5]
# Naming slices (slice(start, end, step))
>>> a = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> LASTTHREE = slice(-3, None)
>>> LASTTHREE
slice(-3, None, None)
>>> a[LASTTHREE]
[3, 4, 5]
# Iterating over list index and value pairs (enumerate)
>>> a = ['Hello', 'world', '!']
>>> for i, x in enumerate(a):
... print '{}: {}'.format(i, x)
...
0: Hello
1: world
2: !
# Zipping and unzipping lists and iterables
>>> a = [1, 2, 3]
>>> b = ['a', 'b', 'c']
>>> z = zip(a, b)
>>> z
[(1, 'a'), (2, 'b'), (3, 'c')]
>>> zip(*z)
[(1, 2, 3), ('a', 'b', 'c')]
# Grouping adjacent list items using zip
>>> a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
>>> # Using iterators
>>> group_adjacent = lambda a, k: zip(*([iter(a)] * k))
>>> group_adjacent(a, 3)
[(1, 2, 3), (4, 5, 6)]
>>> group_adjacent(a, 2)
[(1, 2), (3, 4), (5, 6)]
>>> group_adjacent(a, 1)
[(1,), (2,), (3,), (4,), (5,), (6,)]
>>> # Using slices
>>> from itertools import islice
>>> group_adjacent = lambda a, k: zip(*(islice(a, i, None, k) for i in range(k)))
>>> group_adjacent(a, 3)
[(1, 2, 3), (4, 5, 6)]
>>> group_adjacent(a, 2)
[(1, 2), (3, 4), (5, 6)]
>>> group_adjacent(a, 1)
[(1,), (2,), (3,), (4,), (5,), (6,)]
# Sliding windows (nnn -grams) using zip and iterators
>>> from itertools import islice
>>> def n_grams(a, n):
... z = (islice(a, i, None) for i in range(n))
... return zip(*z)
...
>>> a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
>>> n_grams(a, 3)
[(1, 2, 3), (2, 3, 4), (3, 4, 5), (4, 5, 6)]
>>> n_grams(a, 2)
[(1, 2), (2, 3), (3, 4), (4, 5), (5, 6)]
>>> n_grams(a, 4)
[(1, 2, 3, 4), (2, 3, 4, 5), (3, 4, 5, 6)]
# Flattening lists:
>>> a = [[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6]]
>>> list(itertools.chain.from_iterable(a))
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
>>> sum(a, [])
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
>>> [x for l in a for x in l]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
>>> a = [[[1, 2], [3, 4]], [[5, 6], [7, 8]]]
>>> [x for l1 in a for l2 in l1 for x in l2]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
>>> a = [1, 2, [3, 4], [[5, 6], [7, 8]]]
>>> flatten = lambda x: [y for l in x for y in flatten(l)] if type(x) is list else [x]
>>> flatten(a)
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
