#An illustration of a large number of list
#functions.
def liststuff():
  some_numbers=[3,9,2,11,5]
  some_veggies=['arugula','asparagus','avocado','artichoke']
  a_mess=['broccoli',[7,19],3.78]
  print some_numbers
#we use bracket notation to address the elements of a list
#observe that this works much as in strings, with 0 the index
#of the first element, negative indices, and slices to form
#sublists.
  print some_numbers[3]
  print some_veggies[2]
  print a_mess[1]
  print a_mess[-3:-1]
#We can also find the length of a list with len.
  print len(some_numbers),len(some_veggies),len(a_mess)
#You can concatenate lists with +
  numveg=some_numbers+some_veggies
  print numveg
  print len(numveg)
#There is even a funny multiply operation
  zeros=[0]*12
  print zeros
  numrepeat=some_numbers*5
  print numrepeat
#Note that, in spite of some similarities, 
#strings are NOT lists of characters.
  not_a_string=['h','e','l','l','o']
  print not_a_string
#There's an empty list
  empt=[]
  print len(empt)
#You can use in to test membership in a lit.
  if 'broccoli' in some_veggies:
    print 'broccoli'
  else:
    print 'no broccoli'
  if 'asparagus' in some_veggies:
    print 'asparagus'
  else:
    print 'no asparagus'
#and you can also use the word in when looping over
#a list
  for veg in some_veggies:
    print veg
#ranges are lists
  my_range=range(0,7)
  print my_range
  print my_range[3]
#lists are mutable
  my_range[3]=999
  print my_range
#you can even sort lists (note the peculiar 'object-oriented' syntax
  some_veggies.sort()
  print some_veggies
  some_numbers.sort()
  print some_numbers