Getting the last element of a list

Question

In Python, how do you get the last element of a list?

Answer 1

To prevent IndexError: list index out of range, use this syntax:

mylist = [1, 2, 3, 4]

# With None as default value:
value = mylist and mylist[-1]

# With specified default value (option 1):
value = mylist and mylist[-1] or 'default'

# With specified default value (option 2):
value = mylist[-1] if mylist else 'default'

Answer 2

You can also use the code below, if you do not want to get IndexError when the list is empty.

next(reversed(some_list), None)

Answer 3

lst[-1] is the best approach, but with general iterables, consider more_itertools.last:

Code

import more_itertools as mit


mit.last([0, 1, 2, 3])
# 3

mit.last(iter([1, 2, 3]))
# 3

mit.last([], "some default")
# 'some default'

Answer 4

You can also do:

alist.pop()

It depends on what you want to do with your list because the pop() method will delete the last element.

Answer 5

Another method:

some_list.reverse() 
some_list[0]

Answer 6

If your str() or list() objects might end up being empty as so: astr = '' or alist = [], then you might want to use alist[-1:] instead of alist[-1] for object "sameness".

The significance of this is:

alist = []
alist[-1]   # will generate an IndexError exception whereas 
alist[-1:]  # will return an empty list
astr = ''
astr[-1]    # will generate an IndexError exception whereas
astr[-1:]   # will return an empty str

Where the distinction being made is that returning an empty list object or empty str object is more "last element"-like then an exception object.