Can I split an array out of function parameters

Question

Given a fixed length list and a function

l = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
def printMiddle(first, middle, last):
    print middle
printMiddle(*l)

How do I force middle to print l[1:3] with the output below?

[2, 3, 4]

Answer 1

You could do:

l = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

def printMiddle(*args):
    print(args[1:-1])

printMiddle(*l)

The asterisk * makes args a tuple of the positional arguments (parameters, as you have it) to the function. [1:-1] takes a slice of all but the first and last items in the tuple.

Answer 2

Try this:

l = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
def printMiddle(lst,first, last):
    print lst[first:last]
printMiddle(l,1,4)

Although It would be much sensible to do like this:

l = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
print l[1:4]