Python List to String
One of the most basic data structure of the Python language is a List or a sequence.
A List is a collection of elements which is assigned by a number that is its index or position.
Python List is a zero-indexed data structure.
Python list is a very versatile datatype in which we can assign different types of elements separated by commas.
In this article, I’ll show you different ways to easily convert a python List to String.
Convert a list of string with join
If you have a List with elements of string type you can easily convert the entire list to string with the join() method.
Let us take the following example
>>> list = ['This', 'is', 'a', 'python', 'list']
>>> list_to_string = " ".join(list)
>>> print(list_to_string)
>>> This is a python list
>>> type(list_of_string)
>>> <class 'str'>
As you can see we took a list with 5 elements and using the join() method we converted them into a string.
Convert a list of int, float, and string with join
As I mentioned a list can consist of different types of element, let us assume you have a list with different datatype other than string like int and float, the join() method would not work as it would result in an error.
To avoid such a problem we can use the following ways
Convert a list with join and for loop
>>> list_with_mix_types = ['This', 'is', 1, 'list', 'with', 'mixed', 'types', 2.0]
>>> list_to_string = " ".join(str(x) for x in list_with_mix_types)
>>> print("Result :", list_to_string)
>>> Result : This is 1 list with mixed types 2.0
>>> type(list_of_string)
>>> <class 'str'>
Convert a list with join and map
Besides using a for loop you can also use the Python map function to loop through the list and convert the List to String.
>>> list_with_mix_types = ['This', 'is', 1, 'list', 'with', 'mixed', 'types', 2.0]
>>> list_to_string = " ".join(map(str, list_with_mix_types))
>>> print("Result: ", list_to_string)
>>> Result: This is 1 list with mixed types 2.0
>>> type(list_of_string)
>>> <class 'str'>
Example to convert python list to string
Save the following code in a file called list_to_string.py
def main():
"""
converts a list to string
"""
# List of strings
string_list = ["This", "is", "a", "list", "with", "strings"]
# List with mixed data types
mixed_list = ["Mixed", "list", "with", 1, "int", "and", "floats", 1.0, 2.0]
# converts a list to string with join() method
list_to_string = " ".join(string_list)
# prints the list converted to string
print("String list: ")
print(list_to_string)
# Loops through a list using map function
mixed_list_to_string = " ".join(map(str, mixed_list))
# prints the list converted to string
print("Mixed list: ")
print(mixed_list_to_string)
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
Run the file in the terminal with python list_to_string.py
python list_to_string.py
String list:
This is a list with strings
Mixed list:
Mixed list with 1 int and floats 1.0 2.0
conclusion
As you saw there are different ways to convert a Python List to String depending on the elements in it.
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