Finding Elements within a list

Hi,

I am creating a program where which the user can input a string into a variable. The program will then convert the variable into a list. The program is a string to morse code program. It makes a list of a string inputed by the user, then it searches the characters of the list and then performs a function whereby an LED is flashed using morse code depending upon what the user enters. Here is my code so far:

string = raw_input("Enter ")
list_string = list(string)

last_element = len(list_string) -1

print list_string[0]
print list_string[last_element]

Fundamentally, I can work out the first and last element of a list and can print the first and last element onto the screen. However, I need to be able to print all of the elements in between the first element (0) and the last element (last_element -1)
Would I do something like:

print list_string[0: last_element] ???

This doesn't work, any suggestions on the correct way to enter this line of code would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance
Ibanezmatt13

Just iterate through the elements with a for loop?

Just iterate through the elements with a for loop?

Yep

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for element in string:

will treat string as a list and iterate through each item, assigning the value of element to each successive list member.

...and the 'elements' of string are...?

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mystring = "Hello, world!"
for current_char in mystring:
    print current_char


...will treat the string as a list of characters, of course. And 'assigning the value of element to each successive list member' is most likely the other way around, isn't it?

Another way to put it - some might say more explanatory, some may complain that it's too low-level or non-object-oriented:

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mystring = "Hello, world!"
for cur_char_index in range(0, len(mystring)):
    print mystring[cur_char_index]


...and the 'elements' of string are...?

Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and probably some Nitrogen and maybe a dash of Phosphorus and a few trace impurities.

No I mean each character. Or are you asking me

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len(piece_of_string)

?;) I was expecting the OP to come back and discuss it, but I think he's more occupied in the other thread.

Good point about the non-alphanumeric characters, but I would filter those out if not required in the morse version.

Haha 'Are we talking about strings you use when sewing or maybe guitar strings or...'

What I meant, is that while saying 'iterate over the elements in a string' is technically correct, it might be more educational to point out that the 'elements' of a string are characters and naming the variable something that tells it is a character (instead of the generic 'element') would be a good practice.