Slicing Doubt : why does the 2nd print statement result in blank?

Question

animals =["cat", "dog", "bird", "cow"]

print(animals[-2:4])
print(animals[-2:-4]) # why is it blank?

Answer 1

Ray ,

Negative slicing numbers are arranged like this ----> -4,-3,-2,-1[for your code]

So [-2:-4]
Here first one denotes starting...
Second one denotes end(which is exclusive)...

Always it works from left to right...
If you arrange like [-2:-4] means after -2 it goes to -1...

So try like this [-4:-2]----> here it goes from -4 to -3 and stops since -2 is exclusive...

Here it is implemented,

https://code.sololearn.com/cpn59X26qp7u/?ref=app

Answer 2

Because the end item index is smaller than the first.
That means -4 points on the first item and -2 on the third.
[start:end]