🛠 List Methods

Last Updated: 17th August 2025

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In Python, lists come with many built-in methods and we can also use useful functions to work with them easily. Let’s cover them one by one.

• append() – Adds a single element at the end of the list.

fruits = ["apple", "banana"]
fruits.append("mango")
print(fruits)   # ['apple', 'banana', 'mango']

• extend() – Adds multiple elements to the end of the list.

fruits = ["apple", "banana"]
fruits.extend(["mango", "kiwi"])
print(fruits)   # ['apple', 'banana', 'mango', 'kiwi']

• insert() – Inserts an element at a specific index in the list.

fruits = ["apple", "banana"]
fruits.insert(1, "mango")
print(fruits)   # ['apple', 'mango', 'banana']

• remove() – Removes the first occurrence of a specific element from the list.

fruits = ["apple", "banana", "apple"]
fruits.remove("apple")
print(fruits)   # ['banana','apple']

• pop() – Removes and returns element at a given index (default last).

fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
popped_fruit = fruits.pop(1)
print(fruits)   # ['apple', 'cherry']
print(popped_fruit)   # 'banana'

• index() – Returns index of first occurrence of element.

fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
index = fruits.index("banana")
print(index)   # 1

• count() – Returns number of occurrences of element.

fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "apple"]
count = fruits.count("apple")
print(count)   # 2

-- sort() – Sorts list in ascending order (changes original).

nums = [3, 1, 2]
nums.sort()
print(nums)   # [1, 2, 3]

• reverse() – Reverses list order (in-place).

nums = [1, 2, 3]
nums.reverse()
print(nums)   # [3, 2, 1]

• copy() – Returns a shallow copy of the list.

fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
new_fruits = fruits.copy()
print(new_fruits)   # ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry']

• clear() – Removes all elements from the list.

fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
fruits.clear()
print(fruits)   # []

💡 Quick Practice

• Exercise

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