Python lists

In this part of the Python programming tutorial, we will cover Python lists in more detail.
Python list is a mutable container. It can contain mixed types. A list is an ordered collection of values. It represents a mathematical concept of a finite sequence. Values of a list are called items or elements of the list. A list can contain the same value multiple times. Each occurrence is considered a distinct item.
List elements can be accessed by their index. The first element has index 0, the last one has index -1.

#!/usr/bin/python

nums = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
print nums

This is a simple list having 5 elements. The list is delimited by square brackests []. The elements of a list are separated by comma character. The contents of a list are printed to the console.

$ ./simple.py
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Output of the example.

---

Lists can contain elements of various data types.

#!/usr/bin/python

class Being:
    pass

objects = [1, -2, 3.4, None, False, [1, 2], "Python", (2, 3), Being(), {}]
print objects

In the example, we create an objects list. It contains numbers, a boolean value, another list, a string, a tuple, a custom object and a dictionary.

$ ./various_objects.py
[1, -2, 3.4, None, False, [1, 2], 'Python', (2, 3), <__main__.Being 
  instance at 0xb76a186c>, {}]

Output.

List initialization

Sometimes we need to initialize a list in advance to have a particular number of elements.

#!/usr/bin/python

n1 = [0 for i in range(15)]
n2 = [0] * 15

print n1
print n2

n1[0:11] = [10] * 10

print n1

In this example we initialize two lists using a list comprehension and a * operator.

n1 = [0 for i in range(15)]
n2 = [0] * 15

These two lists are initialized to 15 zeros.

n1[0:11] = [10] * 10

First ten values are replaced with 10s.

$ ./initialization.py
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
[10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 0, 0, 0, 0]

Example output.

The list() function

The list() function creates a list from an iterable object. An iterable may be either a sequence, a container that supports iteration, or an iterator object. If no parameter is specified, a new empty list is created.

#!/usr/bin/python

a = []
b = list()

print a == b

print list((1, 2, 3))
print list("ZetCode")
print list(['Ruby', 'Python', 'Perl'])

In the example, we create an empty list, a list from a tuple, a string and another list.

a = []
b = list()

These are two ways to create an empty list.

print a == b

The line prints True. This confirms, that a, b are equal.

print list((1, 2, 3))

We create a list from a Python tuple.

print list("ZetCode")

This line produces a list from a string.

print list(['Ruby', 'Python', 'Perl'])

Finally, we create a copy of a list of strings.

$ ./list.py
True
[1, 2, 3]
['Z', 'e', 't', 'C', 'o', 'd', 'e']
['Ruby', 'Python', 'Perl']

Example output.

List operations

The following code shows some basic list operations.

#!/usr/bin/python

n1 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
n2 = [3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

print n1 == n2
print n1 + n2

print n1 * 3

print 2 in n1
print 2 in n2

We define two lists of integers. We use a few operators on these lists.

print n1 == n2

The contents of the lists are compared with the == operator. The line prints False since the elements are different.

print n1 + n2

The n1, n2 lists are added to form a new list. The new list has all elements of both the lists.

print n1 * 3

We use the multiplication operator on the list. It repeats the elements n times. 3 times in our case.

print 2 in n1

We use the in operator to find out, whether the value is present in the list. It returns a boolean True or False.

$ ./lists.py
False
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
True
False

Running the example.

Sequence functions

Sequence functions can be used on any sequence types, including lists.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

print "There are %d items" % len(n)
print "Maximum is %d" % max(n)
print "Minimum is %d" % min(n)
print "The sum of values is %d" % sum(n)

In the example above, we have four functions. The len(), max(), min(), and sum() functions.

print "There are %d items" % len(n)

The len() function returns the size of the list. The number of elements of the list.

print "Maximum is %d" % max(n)
print "Minimum is %d" % min(n)

The max() and min() functions return the maximum and the minimum of the list.

print "The sum of values is %d" % sum(n)

The sum() function calculates the sum of the numbers of the n list.

$ ./functions.py
There are 8 items
Maximum is 8
Minimum is 1
The sum of values is 36

Output.

Adding list elements

This section will show how elements are added to a Python list.

#!/usr/bin/python

langs = list()

langs.append("Python")
langs.append("Perl")
print langs

langs.insert(0, "PHP")
langs.insert(2, "Lua")
print langs

langs.extend(("JavaScript", "ActionScript"))
print langs

We have three methods to add new elements to a list. The append(), the insert() and the extend() methods.

langs = list()

An empty list is created using the built-in list() method.

langs.append("Python")
langs.append("Perl")

The append() method adds an item at the end of the list. We append two strings.

langs.insert(0, "PHP")
langs.insert(2, "Lua")

The insert() method places an element at a specific position indicated by the index number. The "PHP" string is inserted at the first position, the "Lua" string at the third position. Note that list index numbers start from zero.

langs.extend(("JavaScript", "ActionScript"))

The extend() method adds a sequence of values to the end of a list. In our case two strings of a Python tuple are appended at the end of our list.

$ ./adding.py
['Python', 'Perl']
['PHP', 'Python', 'Lua', 'Perl']
['PHP', 'Python', 'Lua', 'Perl', 'JavaScript', 'ActionScript']

Example output.

IndexError, TypeError

The IndexError is raised when a list subscript is out of range.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

try:

    n[0] = 10
    n[6] = 60
    
except IndexError, e:
    
    print e

In the script we have defined a list of 5 integers. These elements have indexes 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4. Using a bigger index leads to an error.

n[6] = 60

Index 6 is out of range for our list. An IndexError is thrown.

except IndexError, e:
    
    print e

We catch the error using the except clause. In the body of the clause, we print the error message.

$ ./indexerror.py
list assignment index out of range

Example output.

---

If an index of a tuple is not a plain integer a TypeError is thrown.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

try:
    print n[1]
    print n['2']
    
except TypeError, e:
    print "Error in file %s" % __file__
    print "Message: %s" % e

This example throws a TypeError.

print n['2']

A list index must be an integer. Other types end in error.

except TypeError, e:
    print "Error in file %s" % __file__
    print "Message: %s" % e

In the except block, we print the name of the file, where the exception has occured and the message string.

$ ./typeerror.py
2
Error in file ./typeerror.py
Message: list indices must be integers, not str

Output of the script.

Removing elements

Previously we have added items to a list. Now we will be removing them from a list.

#!/usr/bin/python

langs = ["Python", "Ruby", "Perl", "Lua", "JavaScript"]
print langs

langs.pop(3)
langs.pop()
print langs

langs.remove("Ruby")
print langs

The pop() method removes and returns an element with a specified index or the last element, if the index number is not given. The remove() method removes a particular item from a Python list.

langs.pop(3)
langs.pop()

We take away the element which has index 3. The second line removes and returns the last element from the list, namely "JavaScript" string.

langs.remove("Ruby")

This line removes a "Ruby" string from the langs list.

$ ./removing.py
['Python', 'Ruby', 'Perl', 'Lua', 'JavaScript']
['Python', 'Ruby', 'Perl']
['Python', 'Perl']

From the ouput of the script we can see the effects of the described methods.

---

A del keyword can be used to delete list elements as well.

#!/usr/bin/python

langs = ["Python", "Ruby", "Perl", "Lua", "JavaScript"]
print langs

del langs[1]
print langs

#del langs[15]

del langs[:]
print langs

We have a list of strings. We use the del keyword to delete list elements.

del langs[1]

We remove the second string from the list. It is the "Ruby" string.

#del langs[15]

We can delete only existing elements. If we uncomment the code line, we will receive an IndexError message.

del langs[:]

Here we remove all the remaining elements from the list. The [:] characters refer to all items of a list.

$ ./removing2.py
['Python', 'Ruby', 'Perl', 'Lua', 'JavaScript']
['Python', 'Perl', 'Lua', 'JavaScript']
[]

Running the script.

Modifying elements

In the next example we will be modifying list elements.

#!/usr/bin/python

langs = ["Python", "Ruby", "Perl"]

langs.pop(2)
langs.insert(2, "PHP")
print langs

langs[2] = "Perl"
print langs

In the example we modify the third element of the langs list twice.

langs.pop(2)
langs.insert(2, "PHP")

One way to modify an element is to remove it and place a different element at the same position.

langs[2] = "Perl"

The other method is more straightforward. We assign a new element at a given position. Now there is "Perl" string at the third position again.

$ ./modify.py
['Python', 'Ruby', 'PHP']
['Python', 'Ruby', 'Perl']

Output.

Copying lists

There are several ways how we can copy a list in Python. We will mention a few of them.

#!/usr/bin/python

import copy

w = ["Python", "Ruby", "Perl"]

c1 = w[:]
c2 = list(w)
c3 = copy.copy(w)
c4 = copy.deepcopy(w)
c5 = [e for e in w]

c6 = []
for e in w:
    c6.append(e)
    
c7 = []
c7.extend(w)

print c1, c2, c3, c4, c5, c6, c7

We have a list of three strings. We make a copy of the list seven times.

import copy

We import the copy module, which has two methods for copying.

c1 = w[:]

A list is copied using the slice syntax.

c2 = list(w)

The list() function creates a copy of a list, when it takes a list as a parameter.

c3 = copy.copy(w)
c4 = copy.deepcopy(w)

The copy() method produces a shallow copy of a list. The deepcopy produces a deep copy of a list.

c5 = [e for e in w]

A copy of a string is created using list comprehension.

c6 = []
for e in w:
    c6.append(e)

A copy created by a for loop.

c7 = []
c7.extend(w)

The extend method can be used to create a copy too.

$ ./copying.py
['Python', 'Ruby', 'Perl'] ['Python', 'Ruby', 'Perl'] ['Python', 'Ruby', 'Perl'] 
['Python', 'Ruby', 'Perl'] ['Python', 'Ruby', 'Perl'] ['Python', 'Ruby', 'Perl'] 
['Python', 'Ruby', 'Perl']

Seven copies of a string list were created.

Indexing list elements

Elements in a Python list can be accessed by their index. Index numbers are integers; they start from zero. Indexes can be negative; they refer to elements from the end of the list. The first item in a list has index 0, the last item has -1.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

print n[0]
print n[-1]
print n[-2]

print n[3]
print n[5]

We can access an element of a list by its index. The index is placed between the square brackets [] after the name of the list.

print n[0]
print n[-1]
print n[-2]

These three lines print the first, the last and the last but one item of the list.

print n[3]
print n[5]

The two lines print the fourth and sixth element of the list.

$ ./indexing.py
1
8
7
4
6

Example output.

---

The index(e, start, end) method looks for a particular element and returns its lowest index. The start and end are optional parameters, that limit the search to given boundaries.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2]

print n.index(1)
print n.index(2)

print n.index(1, 1)
print n.index(2, 2)

print n.index(1, 2, 5)
print n.index(3, 4, 8)

A code example with the index() method.

print n.index(1)
print n.index(2)

These two lines print the indexes of the leftmost 1, 2 values of the n list.

print n.index(1, 1)
print n.index(2, 2)

Here we search for 1, 2, numbers after specified indexes.

print n.index(1, 2, 5)

Finally, we search for value 1 between values with indexes 2-5.

$ ./indexing2.py
0
1
4
5
4
6

Example output.

Slicing

List slicing is an operation that extracts certain elements from a list and forms them into another list. Possibly with different number of indices and different index ranges.
The syntax for list slicing is as follows:

[start:end:step]

The start, end, step parts of the syntax are integers. Each of them is optional. They can be both positive and negative. The value having the end index is not included in the slice.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

print n[1:5]
print n[:5]
print n[1:]
print n[:]

We create four slices from a list of 8 integers.

print n[1:5]

The first slice has values with indexes 1, 2, 3 and 4. The newly formed list is [2, 3, 4, 5].

print n[:5]

If the start index is omitted then a default value is assumed, which is 0. The slice is [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].

print n[1:]

If the end index is omitted, the -1 default value is taken. In such a case a slice takes all values to the end of the list.

print n[:]

Even both indexes can be left out. This syntax creates a copy of a list.

$ ./slice.py
[2, 3, 4, 5]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
[2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Output of the example.

---

The third index in a slice syntax is the step. It allows us to take every n-th value from a list.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

print n[1:9:2]
print n[::2]
print n[::1]
print n[1::3]

We form four new lists using the step value.

print n[1:9:2]

Here we create a slice having every second element from the n list, starting from the second element, ending in the eighth element. The new list has [2, 4, 6, 8] elements.

print n[::2]

Here we build a slice by taking every second value from the beginning to the end of the list.

print n[::1]

This creates a copy of a list.

print n[1::3]

The slice has every third element from the second element to the end of the n list.

$ ./slice2.py
[2, 4, 6, 8]
[1, 3, 5, 7]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
[2, 5, 8]

Output of the example.

---

Indexes can be negative numbers. Negative indexes refer to values from the end of the list. The last element has index -1, the last but one has index -2 etc. Indexes with lower negative numbers must come first in the syntax. This means that we write [-6, -2] instead of [-2, -6]. The latter returns an empty list.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

print n[-4:-1]
print n[-1:-4]

print n[-5:]
print n[-6:-2:2]
print n[::-1]

In this script, we form five lists. We also use negative index numbers.

print n[-4:-1]
print n[-1:-4]

The first line returns [5, 6, 7], the second line returns an empty list. Lower indexes must come before higher indexes.

print n[::-1]

This creates a reversed list.

$ ./slice3.py
[5, 6, 7]
[]
[4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
[3, 5]
[8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]

Output of the example.

---

The above mentioned syntax can be used in assignments. There must be an iterable on the right side of the assignment.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

n[0] = 10
n[1:3] = 20, 30
n[3::1] = 40, 50, 60, 70, 80
print n

We have a list of 8 integers. We use the slice syntax to replace the elements with new values.

Traversing lists

This section will point out three basic ways to traverse a list in Python.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

for e in n:
    print e,
    
print   

The first one is the most straightforward way to traverse a list.

n = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

We have a numberical list. There are five integers in the list.

for e in n:
    print e,

Using the for loop, we go through the list one by one and print the current element to the console.

$ ./traverse.py
1 2 3 4 5

This is the output of the script. The integers are printed to the terminal.

---

The second example is a bit more verbose.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

i = 0
s = len(n)

while i < s:
    print n[i],
    i = i + 1

print   

We are traversing the list using the while loop.

i = 0
l = len(n)

First we need to define a counter and find out the size of the list.

while i < s:
    print n[i],
    i = i + 1

With the help of these two numbers, we go through the list and print each element to the terminal.

---

The enumerate() built-in function gives us both the index and the value of a list in a loop.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

for e, i in enumerate(n):
    print "n[%d] = %d" % (e, i)

In the example, we print the values and the indexes of the values.

$ ./traverse3.py 
n[0] = 1
n[1] = 2
n[2] = 3
n[3] = 4
n[4] = 5

Running the script.

Counting list elements

Sometimes it is important to count list elements. How many times they are present in the Python list. The count() method is suited for this.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5]

print n.count(4)
print n.count(1)
print n.count(2)
print n.count(6)

In this example, we count the number of occurences of a few numbers in the n list.

n = [1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5]

We have a list of integer numbers. 1, 4 integers are present multiple times.

print n.count(4)
print n.count(1)
print n.count(2)
print n.count(6)

Using the count() method, we find out the occurence of 4, 1, 2, 6 numbers.

$ ./counting.py
3
2
1
0

Script output. Number 4 is present 3 times, 1 twice, 2 once and 6 is not present in the list.

Nested lists

It is possible to nest lists into another lists. With a nested list a new dimension is created. To access nested lists one needs additional square brackets [].

#!/usr/bin/python

nums = [[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6]]

print nums[0]
print nums[1]
print nums[2]

print nums[0][0]
print nums[0][1]

print nums[1][0]
print nums[2][1]

print len(nums)

In the example, we have three nested lists having two elements each.

print nums[0]
print nums[1]
print nums[2]

Three nested lists of the nums list are printed to the console.

print nums[0][0]
print nums[0][1]

Here we print the two elements of the first nested list. The nums[0] refers to the first nested list; the nums[0][0] refers to the first element of the first nested list, namely 1.

print len(nums)

The line prints 3. Each nested list is counted as one element. Its inner elements are not taken into account.

$ ./multi.py
[1, 2]
[3, 4]
[5, 6]
1
2
3
6
3

Example output.

---

The second example has additional dimensions.

#!/usr/bin/python

nums = [[1, 2, [3, 4, [5, 6]]]]

print nums[0]
print nums[0][2]
print nums[0][2][2]

print nums[0][0]
print nums[0][2][1]
print nums[0][2][2][0]

In the example, the [5, 6] list is nested into [3, 4, ...] list, the [3, 4, [4, 6]] is nested into the [1, 2, ...] list which is finally an element of the nums list.

print nums[0]
print nums[0][2]
print nums[0][2][2]

These three lines print the nested lists to the console.

print nums[0][0]
print nums[0][2][1]
print nums[0][2][2][0]

Here three elements are accessed. Additional brackets [] are needed when referring to inner lists.

$ ./multi2.py
[1, 2, [3, 4, [5, 6]]]
[3, 4, [5, 6]]
[5, 6]
1
4
5

Example output.

Sorting lists

In this section we will sort list elements. Python has a built-in list method sort() and sorted() function for doing sorting.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [3, 4, 7, 1, 2, 8, 9, 5, 6]
print n

n.sort()
print n

n.sort(reverse=True)
print n

In the code example, we have a list of unsorted integers. We sort the elements using the sort() method. The method sorts the elements in-place; the original list is modified.

n.sort()

The sort() method sorts the elements in ascending order.

n.sort(reverse=True)

With the reverse parameter set to True, the list is sorted in a descending order.

$ ./sort.py
[3, 4, 7, 1, 2, 8, 9, 5, 6]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
[9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]

In the ouput we can see the original list, the sorted list in ascending and descending orders.

---

If we do not want to change the original list, we can use the sorted function. This function creates a new sorted list.

#!/usr/bin/python

n = [3, 4, 1, 7, 2, 5, 8, 6]

print n
print sorted(n)
print n

In the example, we use the sorted() function to sort the elements of a list.

$ ./sort2.py
[3, 4, 1, 7, 2, 5, 8, 6]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
[3, 4, 1, 7, 2, 5, 8, 6]

From the ouput of the script we can see, that the original list is not modified.

---

We need to do additional work if we want to sort unicode strings.

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import locale
from functools import cmp_to_key

w = [u'zem', u'štebot', u'rum', u'železo', u'prameň', u"sob"]
locale.setlocale(locale.LC_COLLATE, ('sk_SK', 'UTF8'))

w.sort(key=cmp_to_key(locale.strcoll))

for e in w:
    print e

We have a list of six unicode strings. We change the locale settings to sort the strings according to current language option.

import locale
from functools import cmp_to_key

We import the locale module and the cmp_to_key conversion function.

w = [u'zem', u'štebot', u'rum', u'železo', u'prameň', u"sob"]

This is a list of six strings. The strings are in Slovak language and have some diacritical marks. They play role in sorting the characters correctly.

locale.setlocale(locale.LC_COLLATE, ('sk_SK', 'UTF8'))

We set the locale lettings for the Slovak language.

w.sort(key=cmp_to_key(locale.strcoll))

We sort the list. The locale.strcoll compares two strings according to the current LC_COLLATE setting. The cmp_to_key function transform an old-style comparison function to a key-function.

for e in w:
    print e

We print the sorted words to the console.

$ ./sort_locale.py
prameň
rum
sob
štebot
zem
železo

The elements were correctly sorted. The specifics of the Slovak alphabet were taken into account.

Reversing elements

We can reverse elements in a list in a few ways in Python. Reversing elements should not be confused with sorting in a reverse way.

#!/usr/bin/python

a1 = ["bear", "lion", "tiger", "eagle"]
a2 = ["bear", "lion", "tiger", "eagle"]
a3 = ["bear", "lion", "tiger", "eagle"]

a1.reverse()
print a1

it = reversed(a2)
r = list()
for e in it:
    r.append(e)
print r

print a3[::-1]

In the example, we have three identical string lists. We reverse the elements in three ways.

a1.reverse()

The first way is to use the reverse() method.

it = reversed(a2)
r = list()
for e in it:
    r.append(e)
print r

The reversed() function returns a reverse iterator. We use the iterator in a for loop and create a new reversed list.

print a3[::-1]

The third way is to reverse the list using the slice syntax, where the step parameter is set to -1.

$ ./reverse.py
['eagle', 'tiger', 'lion', 'bear']
['eagle', 'tiger', 'lion', 'bear']
['eagle', 'tiger', 'lion', 'bear']

All the three lists were reversed OK.

List comprehensions

A list comprehension is a syntactic construct which creates a list based on existing list. The syntax was influenced by mathematical notation of sets. The Python syntax was inspired by the Haskell programming language.

L = [expression for variable in sequence [if condition]]

The above pseudo code shows the syntax of a list comprehension. A list comprehension creates a new list. It is based on an existing list. A for loop goes through the sequence. For each loop an expression is evaluated if the condition is met. If the value is computed it is appended to the new list.
List comprehensions provide a more concise way to create lists in situations where map() and filter() and/or nested loops could be used.

#!/usr/bin/python

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

b = [e for e in a if e % 2]
print b

In the example we have defined a list of numbers. With the help of the list comprehension, we create a new list of numbers that cannot be divided by 2 without a remainder.

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

This is the list of 9 integers.

b = [e for e in a if e % 2]

Here we have the list comprehension. In the for e in a loop each element of a list is taken. Then a if e % 2 condition is tested. If the condition is met, an expression is evaluated. In our case the expression is a pure e which takes the element as it is. Finally the element is appended to the list.

$ ./list_comprehension.py
[1, 3, 5, 7, 9]

Example output. The numbers in a list cannot be divided by 2, without a remainder.

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In the second example we compare a list comprehension to a traditional for loop.

#!/usr/bin/python

lang = "Python"

a = []
for e in lang:
    a.append(ord(e))

b = [ord(e) for e in lang]

print a
print b

In the example we have a string. We want to create a list of the ASCII integer codes of the letters of the string.

a = []
for e in lang:
    a.append(ord(e))

We create such a list with the for loop.

b = [ord(e) for e in lang]

Here the same is produced using a list comprehension. Note that the if condition was omitted. It is optional.

$ ./list_comprehension2.py
[80, 121, 116, 104, 111, 110]
[80, 121, 116, 104, 111, 110]

Example output.

The map() and filter() functions

The map() and filter() functions are mass functions that work on all list items. They are part of the functional programming built into the Python language.
Today it is recommended to use list comprehensions instead of these functions where possible.

#!/usr/bin/python


def to_upper(s):
    return s.upper()

words = ["stone", "cloud", "dream", "sky"]

words2 = map(to_upper, words)
print words2

The map() function applies a particular function to every element of a list.

def to_upper(s):
    return s.upper()

This is the definition of the function, that will be applied to every list element. It calls the upper() string method on a given string.

words = ["stone", "cloud", "dream", "sky"]

This is the list of strings.

words2 = map(to_upper, words)
print words2

The map() function applies the to_upper() function to every string element of the words list. A new list is formed and returned back. We print it to the console.

$ ./map.py
['STONE', 'CLOUD', 'DREAM', 'SKY']

Every item of the list is in capital letters.

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The filter() function constructs a list from those elements of the list for which a function returns true.

#!/usr/bin/python


def positive(x):
    return x > 0

n = [-2, 0, 1, 2, -3, 4, 4, -1]

print filter(positive, n)

An example demonstrating the filter() function. It will create a new list having only positive values. It will filter out all negative values and 0.

def positive(x):
    return x > 0

This is the definition of the function used by the filter()function. It returns True or False. Functions that return a boolean value are called predicates.

$ ./filter.py
[1, 2, 4, 4]

Output of the filter.py script.
In this part of the Python tutorial, we have described Python lists.