Convert List to String in Python
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FreeOverview
Converting lists to strings in Python is an interesting task, which can be performed using various methods. The first method involves traversing the list and appending each string in the list to an output string. The second method involves using the join() function, but it only works when the list contains only strings. The third method involves using the map() function, which converts each datatype in the list to a string, and then using the join() function to join the strings of the list. The fourth method involves using list comprehension to generate a list of elements from the input list and then using the join() function to concatenate the elements of the list into a string.
Scope
In this article, we will be learning below topics :
- Convert the list to string in Python
- Various ways for the conversion using the join() function, map() function, list comprehension, and traversal of the list to string which helps in conversion from the list to string in python.
Why Convert Python List To String?
Converting a list to a string is a very commonly used practice when we deal with language codes. We generally convert a list to a string in python so that we can represent the contents of the list to string, or it also helps in the string manipulation while working with python codes.
Methods To Convert List To Strings In Python
1. Traversal of a list function
For converting the list to the string in python, we would have to traverse through the list one by one, and for each string in the list, we would be appending it to the output string list_to_string along with a space between each word in the list. Initially, we would be assigning the empty string out to which each word in the list would be appended. This is a very common and helpful way to convert a list to a string in python.
Example :
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2. Using join() function
In Python, the join function is one of the simplest ways to convert a list to a string in python. While using the join method, we should keep in mind that this method can only convert lists into strings in python that include only strings as elements and returns the string by joining the strings of the list.
In case the list contains the integer values, then the join() function would give an error, and for dealing with such cases, we would have to convert the integer values to strings and then use the join() function.
This is another common method to convert lists to strings in python.
Example :
Output :
3. Using map() function
For dealing with cases where the list contains a datatype other than the string in python, we would have to use the map function firstly, and we would have to typecast each datatype to the string and then use the join() function in each element of the list.
As in the map() function, the first argument is the function to which the next argument is sent. In this case, we have to convert each element to a string type, so we have used map(str,s), which means to convert the s element to the string data type, and after that, we have used the join() function on them to get the output out string. This way of converting a list to a string in python can deal with lists containing integers as well.
Example :
Output :
4. List Comprehension
As we know that the join() function does not perform when the list has a data type other than the string. In such cases, we have to use methods such as List Comprehension.
List comprehension will enable us to generate a list of elements from the input list. For traversing the elements of the list, we have used them for a loop. You can use the join() function to concatenate the traversed elements of the list into an empty string after using the list comprehension method.
This method is very frequently used for the purpose of converting the list to string in python.
Example :
Output:
Conclusion
In this article, we have various methods of converting a list to a string in python. Converting a list to a string is a very common practice while working with python codes. The general practice used for converting the list to string involves :
- Firstly, we have to traverse through each element of the list.
- Always check that the data type of each element in the list is of string datatype. otherwise, convert the data type to string using the map() function or using list comprehension.
- After converting each element to a string data type, we use the join() function to append each element of the list to an initially empty string and keep on appending all the elements of the list by following these steps we can easily convert list to string in python.