list indexing

[Matthew]

Hello, I am rather new to python and I have come across a problem that
I can not find an answer to any where I my books. What I would like to
know is if there is a way to get the index number of a list element by
name. Sort of the inverse of the .index() method.

For example

list = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'list']
for item in list:
  if item = 'list':
    print ????


???? Is where I want to be able to get the index number, in this case
3 from the list in a simple fasion.


I know that I could do this

list = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'list']
counter = 0 
for item in list:
  if item = 'list':
    print counter
  else:
    counter = counter + 1

But is there an easier way?



Thanks very much
-matthew