Why does this iterative list-growing code give IndexError: list assignment index out of range?

Question

Please consider the following code:

i = [1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13]
j = []
k = 0

for l in i:
    j[k] = l
    k += 1

print j

The output (Python 2

Answer 1

You could use a dictionary (similar to an associative array) for j

i = [1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13]
j = {} #initiate as dictionary
k = 0

for l in i:
    j[k] = l
    k += 1

print j

will print :

{0: 1, 1: 2, 2: 3, 3: 5, 4: 8, 5: 13}