Add Items to Python List - Examples

Python - Add item(s) to List

To add one or more an items to a Python List, you can use append() method of list instance.

To add a single item to a list, call append() method on the list and pass the item as argument.

list.append(item)

If you would like to add items from an iterable to this list, use a For loop, and then add the items one by one to the list. 

for item in iterable:
    list.append(item)

In this tutorial, we shall learn how to use append() function to add one or mores items to a list in Python, with example programs.

1. Add an item "mango" to the given List in Python

In the following example program, we take a list with some initial values, and then add an item "mango" to the list using list append() method.

Python Program

my_list = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
my_list.append("mango")
print(my_list)

Explanation

  1. A list named my_list is created, containing three elements: 'apple', 'banana', and 'cherry'.
  2. The append() method is used to add the string 'mango' to the end of the my_list.
  3. After appending, the new list my_list contains the original elements, plus the newly added element: ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry', 'mango'].
  4. The final list is printed, showing: ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry', 'mango'].

When you run this program, the new item "mango" is appended to my_list.

Output

['apple', 'banana', 'cherry', 'mango']

The new item is added to the end of given list.

2. Add multiple items to given List in Python

Suppose, we are given a list and an iterable. We have to add the items present in the iterable to the list.

We can use a For loop to iterate over the items in the iterable, and for each item, we can add the item to the list using list append() method.

In the following program, we are given a list my_list and an iterable iterable. We have to add the items present in iterable to the my_list using list append() method.

Python Program

my_list = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
iterable = ["mango", "fig", "pears"]

for item in iterable:
    my_list.append(item)

print(my_list)

Explanation

  1. A list named my_list is created, containing three elements: 'apple', 'banana', and 'cherry'.
  2. An iterable named iterable is created, containing three elements: 'mango', 'fig', and 'pears'.
  3. A for loop is used to iterate over each element in the iterable list.
  4. For each iteration, the current element of iterable is appended to the my_list using the append() method.
  5. After the loop, my_list contains all the original elements, plus the elements from iterable in the order they were iterated.
  6. The final list my_list is printed, showing the combined elements: ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry', 'mango', 'fig', 'pears'].

Output

['apple', 'banana', 'cherry', 'mango', 'fig', 'pears']

All the items present in the iterable are added to the given list my_list.

Summary

In this tutorial of Python Lists, we have seen how to add one or more items to a list, with the help of examples.



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