Difference Between Python List and Array

In Python, both array and the list are used to store the data as a data structure. In this article, we discuss the difference between a list and an array.

List

Lists are one of the four most commonly used data structures provided by Python. A list is a data structure in python that is mutable and has an ordered sequence of elements. Lists also support negative indexing.

Following is a list of integer values ?

lis= [1,2,3,4,5]
print(lis)

Output

If you execute the above snippet, produces the following output ?

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Array

An array is a data structure that holds data in a linear format. Arrays hold a fixed number of elements and these elements should be homogenous (have the same data type). It's also square bracketed, ordered, mutable, and ordered.

Declaring an array by importing the array module.

In Python, we have to import an array module or import NumPy to declare an array.

Example

import array as arr
sample_array = arr.array("i", [1, 2, 3, 4])
print(sample_array)
print(type(sample_array))

Output

The above code produces the following results

array('i', [1, 2, 3, 4])
<type 'array.array'>

Declaring an array by importing Numpy

In this example, we will declare an array by importing the numpy module.

import numpy as np
sample_array = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4])
print(sample_array)
print(type(sample_array))

Output

The above code produces the following results

[1 2 3 4]
<class 'numpy.ndarray'>

Differences between a list and an array in python

The following are a few important differences between a list and an array in python.