Help with this Python output!

Question

Input:

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
a[1:5] = [1]
print(a)

Output:

[1, 1]

This may be a stupid question and I may be missing something really obvious but why is this this output here?

Answer 1

In your case print(a[1:5]) outputs [2,3,4,5], which are from the second to the fifth character in a list. So a[1:5] = [1] replaces all characters from the second to the fifth one with a 1, but it still leaves the first character on its position. So [1, 1] is the first character of old list + the character with which you replaced second to fifth element.

Answer 2

hi, it looks that a[1:5]=[1] just replace items from "2" to "5" with "1". So the output consists of the original "1" and the new one "1"

Answer 3

Here

https://code.sololearn.com/cgARkam1DSY6/?ref=app

Answer 4

You should learn list operation

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] is a list
a list index start from 0,
a[0] = 1
a[1] = 2
a[2] = 3
a[3] = 4
a[4] = 5

a[1:5] = [1] --> you're slicing list and assigning value = 1, except a[0]
so print(a) ---> [1, 1]

Answer 5

Ooo okay lol I see now whoops thank you