不一样的Python（1）——Data Container

1. 从命名上，Python的List是一个链表，而它实际上是一个数组（Array）。更确切地说，它是一个动态数组，类似于C++的std::vector。

2. Slice

a[start:end] # items start through end-1
a[start:]    # items start through the rest of the array
a[:end]      # items from the beginning through end-1
a[:]         # a copy of the whole array

另外，可以设定step:

a[start:end:step] # start through not past end, by step

start, end和step都可以是负数：

a[-1]    # last item in the array
a[-2:]   # last two items in the array
a[:-2]   # everything except the last two items

当step是负数的时候，表示从后向前遍历：

a[::-1] # reverse a string

Slice时，start、end的值不同于index的值

Python indexes and slices for a six-element list.
Indexes enumerate the elements, slices enumerate the spaces between the elements.

Index from rear:    -6  -5  -4  -3  -2  -1      a=[0,1,2,3,4,5]    a[1:]==[1,2,3,4,5]
Index from front:    0   1   2   3   4   5      len(a)==6          a[:5]==[0,1,2,3,4]
                   +---+---+---+---+---+---+    a[0]==0            a[:-2]==[0,1,2,3]
                   | a | b | c | d | e | f |    a[5]==5            a[1:2]==[1]
                   +---+---+---+---+---+---+    a[-1]==5           a[1:-1]==[1,2,3,4]
Slice from front:  :   1   2   3   4   5   :    a[-2]==4
Slice from rear:   :  -5  -4  -3  -2  -1   :
                                                b=a[:]
                                                b==[0,1,2,3,4,5] (shallow copy of a)

由于slice是两个元素之间的空间，可以用对slice赋值实现插入操作，比如：

>>> r=[1,2,3,4]
>>> r[1:1]
[]
>>> r[1:1]=[9,8]
>>> r
[1, 9, 8, 2, 3, 4]
>>> r[1:1]=['blah']
>>> r
[1, 'blah', 9, 8, 2, 3, 4]

 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/509211/good-primer-for-python-slice-notation上可以看到更多讨论

3.  一个list由若干个sublist组成，把sublist里的元素抽出来形成一个新的list，比如：x = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7], [8, 9]]变成[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

print [item for sumlist in x for item in sublist]
print sum(x, [])
print reduce(lambda m, n: m + n, x)

4. 和上题类似，不同的是sublist里可能还有sublist。怎么把这个嵌套的list变成一个普通的list，比如x=[[1, 2, [3, [4, 5], 6]], [7, 8], 9]变成[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

def flatten(x):
    if isinstance(x, collection.Iterable):
        return [a for i in x for a in flatten(i)]
    else:
        return [x]

def flatten_2(x):
    for sub in x:
        if isinstance(sub, collections.Iterable):
            for a in flatten_2(sub):
                yield a
        else:
            yield sub

def flatten_3(l, ltypes=collections.Sequence):
    l = list(l)
    while l:
        while l and isinstance(l[0], ltypes):
            l[0:1] = l[0]
        if l: yield l.pop(0)

5. 把一个list分成若干个长度为n的sublist（最后一个sublist长度可能小于n）。比如[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] => [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8]]

def group(l, n):
    for i in range(0, len(l), n):
        yield l[i:i+n]

6. 从List里删除符合某条件的数字：

L[:] = filter(lambda x: check(x), L)
或者：
L[:] = [x for x in L if check(x)]

7. Tuple非常适合交换两个数字：

a, b = b, a

8. Tuple也可以用来在函数里传出多个返回值：

def swap(x, y):
  return y, x

a, b = swap(a, b)