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From: Dan M <catdude@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
Subject: Re: mystery string code - help!
Date: 20 Apr 2011 17:01:54 GMT
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> As a newbie Pythoner, I understand [] -1] but would some tell me how
> '::' does its magic?
> 
> Uncle Ben

The -1 is the "stride" or "step" argument. It's described at 
http://docs.python.org/release/2.3.5/whatsnew/section-slices.html

Dan