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Python enumerate() function

Updated on Jan 07, 2020

The enumerate() function takes an iterable and returns an enumerate object (an iterator) that produces a tuple of the form (index, value), where index refers to the offset of the item and item refers to the corresponding item from the iterable.

The syntax of enumerate() function is as follows:

Syntax:

enumerate(iterable[, start=0]) -> iterator for index, value of iterable
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
iterable (required) Any iterable object like string, list, dictionary, etc.
start (optional) Initial value of the index. It defaults to 0.

Here is an example:

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>>> 
>>> list(enumerate("hello"))
[(0, 'h'), (1, 'e'), (2, 'l'), (3, 'l'), (4, 'o')]
>>> 
>>>
>>> for index, value in enumerate("hello"):
...     print(index, value)
... 
0 h
1 e
2 l
3 l
4 o
>>>

Try it out:

print( list(enumerate("hello")) )

for index, value in enumerate("hello"):
    print(index, value)

The following listing shows how enumerate() works with a list, dictionary and tuple:

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>>> 
>>> for index, value in enumerate([110, 45, 12, 891, "one"]):
...     print(index, value)
... 
0 110
1 45
2 12
3 891
4 one
>>> 
>>> 
>>> for index, value in enumerate({'name': 'Jane', 'age': 26, 'salary': 40000}):
...     print(index, value)
... 
0 name
1 salary
2 age
>>> 
>>> 
>>> for index, value in enumerate({1, 290, -88, 10}):
...     print(index, value)
... 
0 -88
1 1
2 10
3 290
>>>

Try it out:

for index, value in enumerate([110, 45, 12, 891, "one"]):
    print(index, value)

print("-"*20)
 
for index, value in enumerate({'name': 'Jane', 'age': 26, 'salary': 40000}):
    print(index, value)

print("-"*20)
 
for index, value in enumerate({1, 290, -88, 10}):
    print(index, value)

Setting the initial value of the index #

To set the initial value of the index, we use the start keyword argument.

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>>> 
>>> list(enumerate("hello", start=2))
[(2, 'h'), (3, 'e'), (4, 'l'), (5, 'l'), (6, 'o')]
>>> 
>>>
>>> for index, value in enumerate("hello", start=2):
... print(index, value)
... 
2 h
3 e
4 l
5 l
6 o
>>>

Try it out:

print( list(enumerate("hello", start=2)) )

for index, value in enumerate("hello", start=2):
    print(index, value)

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