How to Remove the Last N Elements of a List in Python

In this post, we'll learn how to remove the last N elements from a list in Python.

We'll go over the two best ways to do this.

For this example, we'll be using this list:

PYTHON
items = ["apple", "banana", "orange"]

Slicing

One way to remove the last N elements is by using slicing. Slicing supports a negative index, meaning we can use it to remove the last N elements from the list.

Let's see how we can use slicing to remove the last element:

PYTHON
items = ["apple", "banana", "orange"]

print(items[:-1]) # ['apple', 'banana']

In general, you can use this syntax to remove the last N elements from a list:

PYTHON
items = items[:-N]

Deleting

Another way to remove the last N elements is by just deleting it from the list.

Whereas before, we did not modify the original list, by deleting, we are actually removing the last N elements from the list.

To delete, you can use the del keyword, followed by the elements you want deleted.

Back to our earlier example:

PYTHON
items = ["apple", "banana", "orange"]

del items[-1]

print(items) # ['apple', 'banana']

In general, if you want to delete elements from a list, you can use this syntax:

PYTHON
del items[-n:]

Conclusion

In this post, we've seen two ways to remove the last N elements from a list. The first method using slicing keeps the original list intact, while the second method deletes the last N elements from the list.

Hopefully, you've found this post useful and you enjoyed reading it.

Happy coding!

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