How To Get the Last Element Of A List in Python – Definitive Guide

Published on: | Last updated on: January 12, 2023

Python list elements can be accessed using its index.

You can get the last element of a list in python using the list_name[-1] statement.

Basic Example

num_list = [10,20,30,40,50,60]

num_list[-1]

Output

60

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to get the last element of a list in Python using different methods.

Using Index

The index operator and the -1 index gets the last element of a list in python.

The index gives access to the sequence’s element. Here the sequence is a list object.

As represented below, each object in the list element has a positive index and a negative index.

+—+—+—+—+—+—+
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6<= positive indexes
+—+—+—+—+—+—+
| 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | <= elements
+—+—+—+—+—+—+
| -6| -5 | -4 | -3 | -2 | -1 | <= negative indexes
+—+—+—+—+—+—+

Code

num_list = [10,20,30,40,50,60]

num_list[-1]

Output

    50

Using Pop method

The pop method removes the last element of a list and returns it.

Using this method will remove the last element and return it. If you need to reuse the list later, you should not use this method.

Code

num_list = [10,20,30,40,50,60]

num_list.pop(-1)

Output

    50

Using More-itertools

The more-itertools library provides additional building blocks for the functionalities available in the itertools library. It offers additional recipes for working with the Python Iterables.

You can use the last() function to get the last element from the list.

It accepts two parameters.

  • iterable – A list to get the last element from.
  • default – default value needs to be returned when the list is empty. If the default value is not passed, it’ll raise a ValueError exception. It is an Optional parameter.

Installation

You can install the more-itertools package using the below statement.

pip install more-itertools

To install the package directly from the Jupyter notebook, you can prefix the % symbol.

Code

The code below demonstrates how to use the last() function to get the last element of a list.

import more_itertools as mitr_tools

num_list = [10,20,30,40,50,60]

mitr_tools.last(num_list)

Output

    50

Prevent IndexError

When you use the -1 index to get the last element of a list, it returns an IndexError exception when the list is empty.

Code

num_list = []

num_list[-1]

Output

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    IndexError                                Traceback (most recent call last)

    /var/folders/gb/19ly8vfs7t53plwx43wx1q3m0000gn/T/ipykernel_44817/4055114848.py in <module>
          1 num_list = []
          2 
    ----> 3 num_list[-1]


    IndexError: list index out of range

To avoid the ValueError while using the indexing method,

  • Use the slice notation to get the last element.
  • It returns an empty list when there are no elements in the list.

Code

num_list = []

num_list[-1:]

Output

    []

Using And Operator to Avoid Value error

Using the and keyword,

  • Check if the list is empty before trying to get the last element of a list.
  • In this case, the ValueError will not be thrown.

Code

The code below demonstrates how the and keyword works when the list is empty.

It provides an empty list.

num_list = []

value = num_list and num_list[-1]

value

Output

    []

Code

The code below demonstrates how the and keyword works when the list is NOT empty. 

num_list = [10,20,30,40,50,60]

value = num_list and num_list[-1]

value

Output

The last element of the list is returned.

    50

Get Second Last Element of List

To get the second last element of a list,

  • Use the -2 index.
num_list = [10,20,30,40,50,60]

num_list[-2]

Output

50

Get the Last N elements of the List

To get the last N elements of the list,

  • Use the number N with the negative index
  • It’ll return the last N elements

Code

num_list = [10,20,30,40,50,60]

num_list[-3:]

Output

    [40, 50, 50]

Additional Resources

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