List slicing with dynamic index on [:index]

Question

I need to slice a list using negative dynamic indexes ([:-index]). This was easy until I realized that if the value of my dynamic index was 0, no items were returned, instead of returning the entire list. How can I implement this in a way that when the index is 0, it returns the entire string? My code is very long and complicated, but basically this example shows the problem:

    arr='test text'
    index=2
    print arr[:-index]
    >>'test te'    #Entire string minus 2 from the right
    index=1
    print arr[:-index]
    >>'test tex'    #Entire string minus 1 from the right
    index=0
    print arr[:-index]
    >>''           #I would like entire string minus 0 from the right

Note: I am using Python 2.7.

Answer 1

Another potential solution for fun.

>>> arr = [1, 2, 3]
>>> index = 0
>>> arr[:-index or None]
[1, 2, 3]
>>> index = 1
>>> arr[:-index or None]
[1, 2]

---

For higher performance on immutable sequence types like strings, you can avoid slicing the sequence entirely in the case that index is 0 by checking the value of index before the slice operation.

Here's three functions to test in terms of performance:

def shashank1(seq, index):
    return seq[:-index or None]

def shashank2(seq, index):
    return index and seq[:-index] or seq

def shashank3(seq, index):
    return seq[:-index] if index else seq

The latter two should be much faster in the case where index is 0, but may be slower (or faster) in other cases.

---

Updated benchmark code: http://repl.it/oA5

Note: The results depend quite a bit on the Python implementation.

Answer 2

It kind of takes away from the cleanness of the slice notation, but you could do

>>> arr[: len(arr) - 2]
'test te'
>>> arr[: len(arr) - 1]
'test tex'
>>> arr[: len(arr) - 0]
'test text'

Answer 3

You can use None rather than 0 to get the full slice:

>>> arr = [1, 2, 3]
>>> index = 1
>>> arr[:-index if index else None]
[1, 2]
>>> index = 0
>>> arr[:-index if index else None]
[1, 2, 3]

---

My testing:

import timeit

def jonrsharpe(seq, index):
    return seq[:-index if index else None]

def Cyber(seq, index):
    return seq[:len(arr) - index]

def shashank(seq, index):
    return seq[:-index or None]

if __name__ == '__main__':
    funcs = ('jonrsharpe', 'Cyber', 'shashank')
    arr = range(1000)
    setup = 'from __main__ import arr, {}'.format(', '.join(funcs))
    for func in funcs:
        print func
        for x in (0, 10, 100, 1000):
            print x,
            print timeit.timeit('{}(arr, {})'.format(func, x), setup=setup)

and results:

jonrsharpe
0 2.9769377505
10 3.10071766781
100 2.83629358793
1000 0.252808797871
Cyber
0 3.11828875501
10 3.10177615276
100 2.82515282642
1000 0.283648679403
shashank
0 2.99515364824
10 3.11204965989
100 2.85491723351
1000 0.201558213116

Answer 4

Since I wouldn't be able to sleep until I chose the best right answer, I tested the performance of each answer using two different scripts in addition to the one provided by @jonrsharpe.

This is the code I used to compare performance between the three different solutions using profile:

import profile

arr='test 123456789014'

def jonrsharpe(index):
    global arr
    for c in range(1,100000,1):
        a=arr[:-index if index else None]

def Cyber(index):
    global arr
    for c in range(1,100000,1):
        a=arr[:len(arr)-index]

def shashank(index):
    global arr
    for c in range(1,100000,1):
        a=arr[:-index or None]

def testf():
    for index in (0,3,6,9):
        jonrsharpe(index)
        Cyber(index)
        shashank(index)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    profile.run("testf()")

Here is the output:

ncalls  tottime  percall  cumtime  percall filename:lineno(function)
799992    1.629    0.000    1.629    0.000 :0(len)
   12    0.021    0.002    0.021    0.002 :0(range)
    1    0.006    0.006    0.006    0.006 :0(setprofile)
    1    0.000    0.000    4.390    4.390 <string>:1(<module>)
    0    0.000             0.000          profile:0(profiler)
    1    0.000    0.000    4.396    4.396 profile:0(testf())
    4    2.114    0.529    3.750    0.937 test.py:12(Cyber)
    4    0.307    0.077    0.313    0.078 test.py:19(shashank)
    1    0.000    0.000    4.390    4.390 test.py:26(testf)
    4    0.319    0.080    0.328    0.082 test.py:5(jonrsharpe)

Another method:

import time

if __name__ == '__main__':
    arr = '01234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789'#range(1000)
    for x in (0, 10, 20, 30,40,49):
        print 'index=',x
        start=time.clock()
        for count in range(1000000):
            a=arr[:-x if x else None]

        print 'jonrsharpe=',round(time.clock()-start,4)

        start=time.clock()
        for count in range(1000000):
            a=arr[:len(arr)-x]
        print 'Cyber     =',round(time.clock()-start,4)

        start=time.clock()
        for count in range(1000000):
            a=arr[:-x or None]
        print 'shashank  =',round(time.clock()-start,4)

Output:

index= 0
jonrsharpe= 0.4918
Cyber     = 0.5341
shashank  = 0.4269
index= 10
jonrsharpe= 0.4617
Cyber     = 0.5334
shashank  = 0.4105
index= 20
jonrsharpe= 0.4271
Cyber     = 0.4562
shashank  = 0.3493
index= 30
jonrsharpe= 0.4217
Cyber     = 0.4548
shashank  = 0.3264
index= 40
jonrsharpe= 0.4713
Cyber     = 0.8488
shashank  = 0.6458
index= 49
jonrsharpe= 0.6159
Cyber     = 0.5663
shashank  = 0.4312

Since I will be using this line of code a gazillion times, performance is very important, and @Shashank's solution was the winner in most cases, even if it was just by a little.