Add items to list in Python

There are multiple ways to add items or elements to a Python list. We are describing them one by one in this post.

# Define a list
cars = ['Honda', 'Ford']

# Add item using List.append() function
cars.append('TATA')
print(cars)
# -> ['Honda', 'Ford', 'TATA']


# Using insert() function
cars.extend(['Hyundai'])
print(cars)
# -> ['Honda', 'Ford', 'TATA', 'Hyundai']

A list is a collection of items that contains various data type items. If you are working on a python list, you may need to add new items to it based on different conditions. We will describe different ways to add one or multiple items to a list.

In the above code examples, we have a list named cars and we want to add new items to it. We are using List.append() and List.insert() functions for that. Let us understand them one by one.

Add item using append() function - Single item only

We can append items to a list using List.append() function. It takes the new items as a parameter and adds that item to the list.

names = ['John', 'Rick']

names.append('Carol')
print(names)
# -> ['John', 'Rick', 'Carol']

Add items using extend() - One or multiple items

You can use List.insert() function to add one or multiple items to the list in python. It takes iterable data as a parameter to add to the list.

Add a single item to the list using extend() function

companies = ['Tesla']

companies.extend(['Spacex'])
print(companies)
# -> ['Tesla', 'Spacex']

Add multiple items to the list using extend() function

companies = ['Tesla']

companies.extend(['Spacex', 'OpenAI'])
print(companies)
# -> ['Tesla', 'Spacex', 'OpenAI']

Add tuple items to the list using extend() function

companies = ['Tesla']

companies.extend(('Spacex', 'OpenAI'))
print(companies)
# -> ['Tesla', 'Spacex', 'OpenAI']

Add items to the list by merging lists

The concatenation of lists can also be used to add items to a list. Just define a new list with new items that you want to add to the old list.

old_list = ['One', 'Two']
new_list = ['Three', 'Four']

final_list = old_list + new_list
print(final_list)
# -> ['One', 'Two', 'Three', 'Four']

Add items to list using insert() function

names = ['John', 'Rick']

# Syntax - List.insert(index, item)
names.insert(1, 'Negan')
print(names)
# -> ['John', 'Negan', 'Rick']

You can also add an item to the list using List.insert() function. You need to pass the index and the item to the insert() function to add the element.

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