Python List - Loop through Items - For, While, Enumerate

Python - Loop through list

You can loop through a list in Python using While loop, or For loop. We will go through each of them and their variations with examples.

Examples

1. Loop through list using While loop

In the following example, we take a list my_list with three items. We have to iterate over this list using a Python While Loop.

Take a While loop with a counter i that increments in the loop over iterations from 0 up to length of the list. Inside the loop, we access the item in the list using the counter as index.

Python Program

my_list = ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry']

i = 0
while i < len(my_list):
	print(my_list[i])
	i += 1

Output

apple
banana
cherry

2. Loop through List using For loop

We can also use a Python For Loop to directly access the elements itself rather than the index, inside the loop.

Python Program

my_list = ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry']

for item in my_list:
	print(item)

You can use this way, if you need access to the actual item itself rather than the index inside the For loop body.

3. Loop through List using index in For loop

Using Python For Loop with range, we can loop through the index and access the item in the list using this index.

Python Program

my_list = ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry']

for i in range(len(my_list)):
	print(my_list[i])

You can use this way if you need access to the index during the iteration.

4. Loop through List using enumerate() to access both the element and index inside the For loop

With enumerate() function, you can access both index and the item inside a For loop body.

Python Program

my_list = ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry']

for index, item in enumerate(my_list):
	print(f"mylist[{index}] = {item}")

Output

mylist[0] = apple
mylist[1] = banana
mylist[2] = cherry

Summary

In this tutorial of Python Examples, we learned how to iterate through a list, using looping statements, with the help of well detailed example programs.