Slicing a list using a variable, in Python

Question

Given a list

a = range(10)

You can slice it using statements such as

a[1]
a[2:4]

However, I want to do th

Answer 1

Why does it have to be a single variable? Just use two variables:

i, j = 2, 4
a[i:j]

If it really needs to be a single variable you could use a tuple.