Python for loop - skip to last element

You don't have to run on the entire list:

foo = ['hello', 'world','how']

for i in foo[:-1]:
    ........

You can also identify if it's the last by doing:

foo = ['hello', 'world','how']

for i in foo:
    if i == foo[-1]:
        print "I'm the last.."

For more information about list you can refer Docs

And you have a very good tutorial here

Another method to skip the last element

>>> for index, item in enumerate(foo):
        if index==(len(foo)-1):
            # last element 
        else:
            # Do something

My understanding is that you want to check whether you've reached the end of the cycle without break ing out of it. Python has beautiful for...else and while..else constructs for that. The else clause is used when the cycle completes without breaking out So that the skeleton for your code:

for word in foo:
   ... you may break out
else:
    print success

Simple and elegant (and more efficient too)

EDIT: OK, now I get what you want. You may use slicing - as it was suggested, but islice of itertools will do the job better:

from itertools import islice:
for word in islice(foo, len(foo)-1):

You can skip any statement either in last or middle.

foo = ['hello', 'world','how']

for i in foo:
    if i == "how" or i == "hello":
        continue
    print(i)