Python index like MATLAB's end/2

Question

MATLAB has a very convenient syntax for getting half of a list:

x(1:end/2)

The syntax I know for python to do this is

x[:len(x)/2]

This is fine in this case, because len(x) is easy to write. But this syntax becomes more than a pain when the name of the list is long (as they sometimes need to be), and even more so when there is a list of similar long names.

I know this is a real shot in the dark, but does python have any syntax option like MATLAB's?

Solution

There is no specialized syntax. If you need to do it a lot, write a function:

def half_list(l):
    return l[:len(l)/2]