How to Reverse a Python List?

Python – Reverse a List

You can reverse a Python List using list.reverse() function.

The index of each element in the list will be changed from i to len(list)-i-1.

reverse() performs in-place reverse. The original list gets updated to the new reversed list.

Example 1 – Reverse a Python List

In the following python program, we initialize a python list with integers and reverse the list.

example.py – Python Program

#initialize list
aList = [21, 28, 14, 96, 84, 65, 74, 31]

#reverse list
aList.reverse()

#print list
print(aList)

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Output

[31, 74, 65, 84, 96, 14, 28, 21]

Example 2 – Reverse List with elements of Different Datatypes

In the following example, we initialize a list with different datatypes and try to reverse the list using reverse().

example.py – Python Program

#initialize list
aList = [True, 28, 'Tiger', 'Lion']

#reverse list
aList.reverse()

#print list
print(aList)

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Output

['Lion', 'Tiger', 28, True]

Example 3 – Reverse an Empty List using For Loop

Instead of using inbuilt function reverse() on sequences, we will use for loop to reverse a list.

example.py – Python Program

#initialize list
aList = [True, 28, 'Tiger', 'Lion']

#copying original list is merely for size
reversedList = aList.copy()
len = len(aList)

#reverse list using for loop
for i in range(0,len):
	reversedList[i] = aList[len-i-1]

#print lists
print('Original List\n',aList)
print('Reversed List\n',reversedList)

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Output

Original List
 [True, 28, 'Tiger', 'Lion']
Reversed List
 ['Lion', 'Tiger', 28, True]

Example 4 – Reverse an Empty List

Of course, the reversing an empty list results in empty list.

example.py – Python Program

#initialize list
aList = []

#reverse list
aList.reverse()

#print list
print(aList)

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Output

[]

Conclusion

In this Python Tutorial, we learned how to reverse a list using reverse() function with the help of example Python programs.