slicing insert question, L[1:1]

Question

practising some python, which is a pretty easy language to grab up.

I have

>>> L = [1,2,3,4]
>>> L[1:1] = [1,2,3]
>>> L
[1         


        

Answer 1

Slicing behaves differently depending on whether it's on the left- or right-hand side of an expression. When it's on the left side, it doesn't return a list - instead, it behaves as a slice object, which knows more about slices and has assignment specifically overridden to operate as insertion.