Question

I'm trying to get a handle on string slicing.
Thanks for any help.
I thought -1 referenced the last character of a string.
See my Gist for the code snip.
https://gist.github.com/4328274

Further reading shows that print group[start: ] is the right format. The question still remains in my mind, though.

Answer 1

I can't give you the deep theory, but if you try this, you'll see what's going on:
x = "012345"
print x[:-1] ##up to but not including last character
print x[-1]##print last character
print x[0:] ##up to and including last character

Answer 2

Thanks, exchaoordo.
I guess my problem is that the logic of -1 being both a reference to the last character of the string AND the penultimate (last - 1) character is confusing.

But, I'll live with it and move on.

Answer 3

I share your pain: I really want things to actually make sense rather than just knowing how to make stuff work.