Use the built-in function enumerate():

for idx, x in enumerate(xs):
    print(idx, x)

It is non-Pythonic to manually index via for i in range(len(xs)): x = xs[i] or manually manage an additional state variable.

Check out PEP 279 for more.

Answer from Mike Hordecki on Stack Overflow
Top answer
1 of 16
9259

Use the built-in function enumerate():

for idx, x in enumerate(xs):
    print(idx, x)

It is non-Pythonic to manually index via for i in range(len(xs)): x = xs[i] or manually manage an additional state variable.

Check out PEP 279 for more.

2 of 16
1368

Using a for loop, how do I access the loop index, from 1 to 5 in this case?

Use enumerate to get the index with the element as you iterate:

for index, item in enumerate(items):
    print(index, item)

And note that Python's indexes start at zero, so you would get 0 to 4 with the above. If you want the count, 1 to 5, do this:

count = 0 # in case items is empty and you need it after the loop
for count, item in enumerate(items, start=1):
    print(count, item)

Unidiomatic control flow

What you are asking for is the Pythonic equivalent of the following, which is the algorithm most programmers of lower-level languages would use:

index = 0            # Python's indexing starts at zero
for item in items:   # Python's for loops are a "for each" loop 
    print(index, item)
    index += 1

Or in languages that do not have a for-each loop:

index = 0
while index < len(items):
    print(index, items[index])
    index += 1

or sometimes more commonly (but unidiomatically) found in Python:

for index in range(len(items)):
    print(index, items[index])

Use the Enumerate Function

Python's enumerate function reduces the visual clutter by hiding the accounting for the indexes, and encapsulating the iterable into another iterable (an enumerate object) that yields a two-item tuple of the index and the item that the original iterable would provide. That looks like this:

for index, item in enumerate(items, start=0):   # default is zero
    print(index, item)

This code sample is fairly well the canonical example of the difference between code that is idiomatic of Python and code that is not. Idiomatic code is sophisticated (but not complicated) Python, written in the way that it was intended to be used. Idiomatic code is expected by the designers of the language, which means that usually this code is not just more readable, but also more efficient.

Getting a count

Even if you don't need indexes as you go, but you need a count of the iterations (sometimes desirable) you can start with 1 and the final number will be your count.

count = 0 # in case items is empty
for count, item in enumerate(items, start=1):   # default is zero
    print(item)

print('there were {0} items printed'.format(count))

The count seems to be more what you intend to ask for (as opposed to index) when you said you wanted from 1 to 5.


Breaking it down - a step by step explanation

To break these examples down, say we have a list of items that we want to iterate over with an index:

items = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']

Now we pass this iterable to enumerate, creating an enumerate object:

enumerate_object = enumerate(items) # the enumerate object

We can pull the first item out of this iterable that we would get in a loop with the next function:

iteration = next(enumerate_object) # first iteration from enumerate
print(iteration)

And we see we get a tuple of 0, the first index, and 'a', the first item:

(0, 'a')

we can use what is referred to as "sequence unpacking" to extract the elements from this two-tuple:

index, item = iteration
#   0,  'a' = (0, 'a') # essentially this.

and when we inspect index, we find it refers to the first index, 0, and item refers to the first item, 'a'.

>>> print(index)
0
>>> print(item)
a

Conclusion

  • Python indexes start at zero
  • To get these indexes from an iterable as you iterate over it, use the enumerate function
  • Using enumerate in the idiomatic way (along with tuple unpacking) creates code that is more readable and maintainable:

So do this:

for index, item in enumerate(items, start=0):   # Python indexes start at zero
    print(index, item)
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Programiz
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Python Program to Access Index of a List Using for Loop
Print the required variables inside the for loop block. The function of enumerate() is to add a counter (i.e. index) to the iterate and return it. my_list = [21, 44, 35, 11] for index, val in enumerate(my_list, start=1): print(index, val) ... The value of the parameter start provides the starting ...
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GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › python › access-the-index-and-value-using-python-for-loop
Access the Index and Value using Python 'For' Loop - GeeksforGeeks
July 23, 2025 - We can also use count from itertools along with zip() to achieve a similar effect. In this example, we have used itertools to access the index value in a for loop.
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GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › python › how-to-access-index-in-for-loop-python
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July 23, 2025 - data = ["java", "python", "HTML", "PHP"] print("Indices:", [i for i in range(len(data))]) print("Elements:", [data[i] for i in range(len(data))]) ... Explanation: [i for i in range(len(data))] creates a list of indices.
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Python Guides
pythonguides.com › python-for-loop-index
How to Use Python For Loop with Index
October 14, 2025 - Modifying the list while looping: Avoid changing the list (adding or removing elements) inside the for loop. It can cause unexpected behavior or index errors. Using wrong start index: Remember that Python uses zero-based indexing. If you want a human-readable index, start from 1 using enumerate(states, start=1). Forgetting tuple unpacking: When using enumerate(), make sure to unpack both the index and the item correctly: ... Let’s say you have a list of states and their populations, and you want to print them in a formatted way with their index.
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ioflood.com › blog › python-for-loop-with-index
Learn Python: For Loops With Index (With Examples)
June 7, 2024 - In this example, we use the enumerate() function in a for loop to iterate over a list of fruits. The enumerate() function adds a counter to the list (or any other iterable), and returns it in a form of enumerate object.
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treyhunner.com › 2016 › 04 › how-to-loop-with-indexes-in-python
How to loop with indexes in Python
For example, let’s say we’re printing out president names along with their numbers (based on list indexes). We could use range(len(our_list)) and then lookup the index like before: But there’s a more idiomatic way to accomplish this task: use the enumerate function. Python’s built-in enumerate function allows us to loop over a list and retrieve both the index and the value of each item in the list:
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stratascratch.com › blog › mastering-loop-iterations-python-for-loop-index-explained
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Accessing the Index in a `for` Loop in Python | Sentry
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Python For Loop with Index - Examples
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › when using for loops are we iterating through the index or the actual values?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: When using for loops are we iterating through the index or the actual values?
March 8, 2023 -
for i in range(10,20):
    print(i)

I understand that i is going through the values 10 to 20. I know there can be an index attached but why do we have to explicitly associate an index to a value to change the value we want?

seasons = ['fall','winter','spring','summer'] # works like the enurate function
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        if seasons[i] == 'summer':
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        print(i , seasons[i])

Why do we have to associate the index to change the actual value? What exactly are we looping through

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November 25, 2024 - ... fruits = ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry'] for i in range(len(fruits)): print(f"Index: {i}, Fruit: {fruits[i]}") Explain Code · Here, range(len(fruits)) creates a sequence of indices from 0 to the length of the list minus one.
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YouTube
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Start your software dev career - https://calcur.tech/dev-fundamentals 💯 FREE Courses (100+ hours) - https://calcur.tech/all-in-ones🐍 Python Course - https:...
Published   May 4, 2020
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sparkbyexamples.com › home › python › python – access index in for loop with examples
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May 31, 2024 - In the below example, the start=1 parameter is used in the enumerate function to start the index at 1. This way, the loop iterates over the elements in the list, and the index variable starts from 1 instead of 0. # Start loop indexing with non ...
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Sometimes, it is natural to think about iterating through the positions, or indexes of a sequence, rather than through the items themselves. For example, consider the list ['apple', 'pear', 'apricot', 'cherry', 'peach']. ‘apple’ is at position 0, ‘pear’ at position 1, and ‘peach’ ...
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