Populating a list/array by index in Python?

Question

Is this possible:

myList = []

myList[12] = \'a\'
myList[22] = \'b\'
myList[32] = \'c\'
myList[42] = \'d\'

When I try, I get:

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Answer 1

Not without populating the other locations in the list with something (like None or an empty string). Trying to insert an element into a list using the code you wrote would result in an IndexError.

There's also mylist.insert, but this code:

myList.insert(12,'a')

would just insert 'a' at the first unoccupied location in the list (which would be 0 using your example).

So, as I said, there has to be something in the list at indexes 0-11 before you can insert something at myList[12].