I was just experimenting with lists and discovered a way of adding to besides using the append or extend methods. I'm sure this is painfully obvious to experienced Pythonistas but as a rank beginner I found it fascinating. Hope it's OK to post what may for most be obvious and trivial.

create a list

a = ['a', 'b', 'c']

add an element to the list

a + ['d'] #returns ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'] ; didn't use append()

use augmented assignment operator to add another element

now let a be ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']

a += ['e'] #a is now ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']

add more than one element using augmented assignment

a += ['g', 'h'] #a is now ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'g', 'h']; didn't use extend()

replicate/repeat list with * operator

a *=2 #a is now ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'g', 'h', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'g', 'h']

I don't have any luck with -=. As far as I can tell, you have to use del or pop() to remove items from a list.

I thought it was pretty nifty to be able to manipulate lists in this manner. Hope this helps.