#(1) someList = { 1000:[ ("1","2","3","","5","","7","8","9") ], 1001:[ ("1","2","3","4","5","6","","8","9") ], } #(2) for i in range(len(listy)): if ( "" == listy[i+1000][i-1000:][i-1000:] ): print("%d\t%d\tEMPTY BLOCK\t[%d]" % (i+1000,i-000,i)) else: print("%d\t%d\tFULL BLOCK\t[%d]" % (i+1000,i-000,i))