Python – Difference between Uni length slicing and Access Notation

There are various ways to extract elements, Uni length slicing and Access Notations are among them. Let’s check difference between them.

Difference #1 : Different behaviour with Different Containers

The access notation return element in both List and Strings, but return 1 length strings while slicing using uni length slice and element in case of strings.

Python3

# Python3 code to demonstrate working of
# Difference between Uni length slicing and Access Notation
# In different containers

# initializing lists
test_list = [5, 7, 2, 6, 8, 1]

# initializing string
test_str = "572681"

# printing original list
print("The original list : " + str(test_list))

# printing string
print("The original string : " + str(test_str))
print("\r")

# access Notation results
acc_list = test_list[3]
acc_str = test_str[3]

# unilength slicing results
slc_list = test_list[3 : 4]
slc_str = test_str[3 : 4]

# printing results
print("The access notation result for list : " + str(acc_list))
print("The access notation result for string : " + str(acc_str))
print("\r")
print("The slicing result for list : " + str(slc_list))
print("The slicing result for string : " + str(slc_str))

Output

The original list : [5, 7, 2, 6, 8, 1]
The original string : 572681

The access notation result for list : 6
The access notation result for string : 6

The slicing result for list : [6]
The slicing result for string : 6

Difference #2 : No Index out of bounds Exception in case of Slice operation

There is no out of bounds exception in case of Slice Operation, but there is, in case of access notation.

Python3

# Python3 code to demonstrate working of
# Difference between Uni length slicing and Access Notation
# No Index out of bounds Exception in case of Slice operation

# initializing lists
test_list = [5, 7, 2, 6, 8, 1]

# printing string
print("The original list : " + str(test_list))

# access Notation results
try :
    acc_list = test_list[17]
except Exception as e:
    acc_list = str(e)

# unilength slicing results
slc_list = test_list[17 : 18]

# printing results
print("The access notation result for list : " + str(acc_list))
print("The slicing result for list : " + str(slc_list))

Output

The original list : [5, 7, 2, 6, 8, 1]
The access notation result for list : list index out of range
The slicing result for list : []

The Time and Space Complexity for all the methods are the same:

Time Complexity: O(n)

Auxiliary Space: O(n)