Question
Can negative numbers be used for the start or end points of a slice?
Answer
Yes, negative numbers can be used for the start or end of a list slice. A negative number used for the start of the slice will return a list which contains the number of items starting from the end of the list. A negative number used for the end returns a list which contains items excluding the number of items at the end of the list.
The following example shows both cases.
colors = ['red', 'green', 'blue', 'yellow', 'orange']
# List containing only last 2 = ['yellow', 'orange']
print(colors[-2:])
# List excluding last 2 = ['red', 'green', 'blue']
print(colors[:-2])