Python 2.x gotchas and landmines

Question

The purpose of my question is to strengthen my knowledge base with Python and get a better picture of it, which includes knowing its faults and surprises. To keep things sp

Answer 1

List slicing has caused me a lot of grief. I actually consider the following behavior a bug.

Define a list x

>>> x = [10, 20, 30, 40, 50]

Access index 2:

>>> x[2]
30

As you expect.

Slice the list from index 2 and to the end of the list:

>>> x[2:]
[30, 40, 50]

As you expect.

Access index 7:

>>> x[7]
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
IndexError: list index out of range

Again, as you expect.

However, try to slice the list from index 7 until the end of the list:

>>> x[7:]
[]

???

The remedy is to put a lot of tests when using list slicing. I wish I'd just get an error instead. Much easier to debug.