The range() function in Python generates a sequence of numbers. By default, the sequence starts at 0, increments by 1, and stops before the specified number.
Example
# create a sequence from 0 to 3 (4 is not included)
numbers = range(4)
# iterating through the sequence
for i in numbers:
print(i)
Output
0 1 2 3
range() Syntax
The syntax of range() is:
range(start, stop, step)The start and step arguments are optional.
range() Return Value
The range() function returns an immutable sequence of numbers.
Example 1: range(stop)
# create a sequence from 0 to 3 (4 is not included)
numbers = range(4)
# convert to list and print it
print(list(numbers)) # Output: [0, 1, 2, 3]
In this example, we have converted the range sequence to a list.
Example 2: range(start, stop)
# create a sequence from 2 to 4 (5 is not included)
numbers = range(2, 5)
print(list(numbers)) # [2, 3, 4]
# create a sequence from -2 to 3
numbers = range(-2, 4)
print(list(numbers)) # [-2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3]
# creates an empty sequence
numbers = range(4, 2)
print(list(numbers)) # []
Example 3: range(start, stop, step)
# create a sequence from 2 to 10 with increment of 3
numbers = range(2, 10, 3)
print(list(numbers)) # [2, 5, 8]
# create a sequence from 4 to -1 with increment of -1
numbers = range(4, -1, -1)
print(list(numbers)) # [4, 3, 2, 1, 0]
# range(0, 5, 1) is equivalent to range(5)
numbers = range(0, 5, 1)
print(list(numbers)) # [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
range() in for Loop
The range() function is commonly used in for loop to iterate the loop a certain number of times. For example,
# iterate the loop five times
for i in range(5):
print(f'{i} Hello')
0 Hello 1 Hello 2 Hello 3 Hello 4 Hello