Append to Empty List in Python (3 Examples)

In this article, I’ll show how to add objects to an empty list in the Python programming language.

Table of contents:

Let’s dive right into the examples!

Sample List

For the demonstration, first, we need to create an empty list.

my_list=[]                       # create empty list
print(my_list)                   # print my_list
# []

As shown above, now we have an empty list called my_list. The next step is to add some elements to it. Let’s do it!

Example 1: Add Items to Empty List via append()

In this section, I’ll explain how to append elements to my_list using the append() method. As an example, I will add the integer 1.

my_list.append(1)                # append 1
print(my_list)                   # print my_list
# [1]

As seen, now, my_list contains the element 1. What if we want to add multiple elements to my_list? In such a case, we need to use a for loop to repeat the appending operation for each element to be added. For demonstration, I will add the integers 1, 2, and 3.

for i in range(1, 4):            # append 1, 2 and 3
    my_list.append(i)
print(my_list)                   # print my_list
# [1, 2, 3]

The for loop has iterated through the sequence of numbers from 1 to 3 using the range() function.Then it appended these numbers via the append() method. As a result, my_list turned out to be a list consisting of the elements 1, 2, and 3.

Using for loops is just an option to add multiple items to a list. You can also opt for some Python methods specialized for inserting multiple items. Let’s take a look at them!

Example 2: Add Items to Empty List via extend()

The extend() method is a common list method for adding multiple elements to a list. For the implementation, please see below.

my_list.extend([1, 2, 3])        # append 1, 2 and 3
print(my_list)                   # print my_list
# [1, 2, 3]

As seen, just like using the append() method to add a single item to a list, you can use the extend() method with a list of items, like [1, 2, 3], to add multiple items to a list. You can also provide the numbers in a tuple (1, 2, 3) instead of a list.

Last but not least, another alternative is using the concatenation operator. Let’s see how it operates!

Example 3: Add Items to Empty List via Concatenation Operator

You can easily add elements to an empty list using the concatenation operator + together with the list containing the elements to be appended. See the formula below.

my_list + [1, 2, 3]              # append 1, 2 and 3
# [1, 2, 3]

As shown above, we have obtained a list with elements 1, 2, and 3 as a result. But please be aware that we haven’t printed my_list to obtain the final result like in the previous examples. Let’s see next what happens if we print my_list.

print(my_list)                   # print my_list 
# []

It looks like the elements have not been added to my_list. The reason is that the concatenation operator does not work in place, which implies that the original object, which is a list in this case, is not modified by the operation directly.

If you want to save the result in an object, you should explicitly assign an object name to it. I will use the name my_list since it is the object that I want to update. Please see the modified code below.

my_list = my_list + [1, 2, 3]    # append 1, 2 and 3
print(my_list)                   # print my_list
# [1, 2, 3]

Now, our list is updated by the given values. You can also prefer to save the result under a new object name and keep my_list empty.

Video & Further Resources

Do you need further information on the topics of this article? Then I recommend watching the following video on my YouTube channel. In the video, I demonstrate the Python programming codes of this post in Python.

The YouTube video will be added soon.

Furthermore, you may want to have a look at the other Python articles on my website. I have released several tutorials already.

• Create Empty 2D List in Python
• Check if Linked List is Empty in Python
• Append to 2D List in Python
• Check if List of Lists is Empty in Python
• All Python Programming Tutorials

Summary: In this Python article, you have learned how to append elements to empty lists. Let me know in the comments section if you have any additional questions.

This page was created in collaboration with Cansu Kebabci. Have a look at Cansu’s author page to get more information about her professional background, a list of all his tutorials, as well as an overview on her other tasks on Statistics Globe.