Python list to string
last modified January 29, 2024
Python list to string tutorial shows how to convert a list to a string in Python.
To turn a list of elements into a single string in Python, we will utilize
the join, map, str functions and the
string concatenation operator.
The join function returns a string which is the concatenation of
the strings in the given iterable. The map function return an
iterator that applies the given function to every item of iterable, yielding the
results. The str function transforms the given object to a string.
Python uses the + operator to concatenate strings.
Python list to string examples
In the first example, we transform the list to a string with the
join function.
#!/usr/bin/python words = ['a', 'visit', 'to', 'London'] slug = '-'.join(words) print(slug)
In the example, we create a slug from a list of words.
$ ./list2string.py a-visit-to-London
In the next example, we use the join function and the Python list
comprehension.
#!/usr/bin/python
words = ['There', 'are', 3, 'chairs', 'and', 2, 'lamps', 'in',
'the', 'room']
msg = ' '.join(str(word) for word in words)
print(msg)
Not all elements in the words list are strings; therefore, we need
to transform the integers to strings before applying the join
function. For this, we use the Python list comprehension construct.
$ ./list2string2.py There are 3 chairs and 2 lamps in the room
Alternatively, we can also use the map function.
#!/usr/bin/python
words = ['There', 'are', 3, 'chairs', 'and', 2, 'lamps', 'in',
'the', 'room']
msg = ' '.join(map(str, words))
print(msg)
We apply the str function on each element of the list with the
map function. Then we join all the elements with join.
$ ./list2string3.py There are 3 chairs and 2 lamps in the room
Finally, we use a string concatenation operator to transform a list to a string.
#!/usr/bin/python
words = ['There', 'are', 3, 'chairs', 'and', 2, 'lamps', 'in',
'the', 'room']
msg = ''
for word in words:
msg += f'{word} '
print(msg)
We go through all the elements of the list in a for loop. We build the string
using the string concatenation operator. (In our case the +=
compound operator.)
$ ./list2string4.py There are 3 chairs and 2 lamps in the room
Source
Python datastructures - language reference
In this article we have converted lists to strings in Python.
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