LINDEX(3valkey)

💅 LINDEX — bestie edition (from the LINDEX(3valkey) page)

okay so. imagine ur list. imagine u wanna grab ONE lil element out of it by its number. that's literally it. that's the whole vibe. LINDEX is ur girl 💖

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

LINDEX key index

two args. key, then index. no more no less. periodt.

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so LINDEX returns the element sitting at index inside the list stored at key. and here's the thing — the index is zero-based, so 0 is the first element, 1 is the second, and so on forever and ever amen. counting from zero is giving very programmer of us but it's the rules, i don't make them.

but wait 🎀 u can also go negative!! negative indices count from the tail of the list. so -1 is the last element, -2 is the penultimate one (yes that's a real word, it means second-to-last, i looked it up), and so forth. iconic behaviour honestly.

⚠️ real talk though: if the value at key is not a list, u get an error. no list, no element, no mercy. 😭

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💌 REPLY 💌

RESP2 ✨

one of these two, depending on vibes:

• valkey-protocol(7) Nil reply: this is what u get when index is out of range. nothing there bestie. empty. void. 💀
• valkey-protocol(7) Bulk string reply: the requested element. the actual goods. 🫶

RESP3 💖

same energy, slightly different packaging:

• valkey-protocol(7) Null reply: when index is out of range.
• valkey-protocol(7) Bulk string reply: the requested element. 🎀

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⏱️ COMPLEXITY ⏱️

O(N) where N is the number of elements to traverse to get to the element at index. so yeah, walking to the middle of a huge list costs u, that's just physics. BUT — this is the slay part — asking for the first or the last element of the list is O(1). constant time. instant. main character speed. 🔥

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🔐 ACL CATEGORIES 🔐

@list @read @slow

(so: it's a list thing, it reads, and it can be slow if u ask for a far-away index. noted.)

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📜 HISTORY 📜

• available since: 1.0.0 — she's been here since the beginning, a true OG 👑

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🧪 EXAMPLES 🧪

127.0.0.1:6379> LPUSH mylist "World"
(integer) 1
127.0.0.1:6379> LPUSH mylist "Hello"
(integer) 2
127.0.0.1:6379> LINDEX mylist 0
"Hello"
127.0.0.1:6379> LINDEX mylist -1
"World"
127.0.0.1:6379> LINDEX mylist 3
(nil)

see how 0 gave us "Hello" (the one we pushed LAST ends up FIRST, that's LPUSH for u, pushing to the head) and -1 gave us "World" (the tail, the oldest). and then 3? out of range. (nil). nothing. silence. 🦋

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

blmove(3valkey), blmpop(3valkey), blpop(3valkey), brpop(3valkey), brpoplpush(3valkey), linsert(3valkey), llen(3valkey), lmove(3valkey), lmpop(3valkey), lpop(3valkey), lpos(3valkey), lpush(3valkey), lpushx(3valkey), lrange(3valkey), lrem(3valkey), lset(3valkey), ltrim(3valkey), rpop(3valkey), rpoplpush(3valkey), rpush(3valkey), rpushx(3valkey)

the whole list-girlie friend group fr fr 🫂 go read them, iykyk.

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okay that's the page!! 🎀 this was version 9.0.0, dated 2025-10-21, from the LINDEX(3valkey) manual. mwah, go index something responsibly 💅✨