Python Forum

Hello!

So I tried to search about this, but can't find an explanation regarding the output.

a = [3, 1, -2]

print(a[a[-1])

Output:
1

I initially thought that this would return an error, but it ran fine. I also thought that it would just reference the last element which is -2 thinking that -1 in the print() is referring to the index.

I just started learning Python. Thanks in advance for any help!

to print entire list:

for item in a:
    print(item)

To print last item:

print(a[-1])

Your item: a[a[-1]] would be:

Output:
a indexed by a[-1] 
= a[-2]
= 1

First of all - your code will indeed raise an error because there is missing closing ] :-)

now, look at

a = [3, 1, -2]
print(a[a[-1]])

a[-1] will return -2, so this is equivalent to print(a[-2]). and a[-2] is 1