The Python List Comprehensions provides an easy and simple way to create a list based on another list or some iterables. The fewer lines of code, easy to read syntax helps you to write more complex functionalities in an elegant way.
In this article, we will show you, How to use List Comprehensions in Python Programming language with multiple examples.
Python List Comprehensions Syntax
The syntax of the List Comprehensions in Python Programming Language is as shown below:
[output_expression for item in List]
[output_expression for item in List if condition]
[output_expression If Else conditions for item in List]
Python List Comprehensions Examples
The following list of examples helps you understand the Python List Comprehensions.
TIP: I suggest you to refer to Python List article to understand the List concept, and Python List functions to know about available list functions.
Simple Python List Comprehensions Examples
Before we start using the list comprehensions, let me show you the traditional approach to achieve the same result. The following code uses for loop to iterate list items and appending each item to a new list. In short, we are copying list items to a completely new list.
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
new_list = []
for num in numbers:
new_list.append(num)
print(new_list)
OUTPUT
In general, we use for loop syntax structure along with append function to iterate list items and adding them. However, you can use Python List comprehensions to get that result. This will be easy to read, and takes less time to execute.
In this example, first, we are using regular approach, and next we used the list comprehension approach. If you observe closely, we used the same for loop. But, we removed the append function and placed that value before for loop.
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
new_list = []
for num in numbers:
new_list.append(num)
print(new_list)
# List Comprehension Example
print("===================")
my_list = [num for num in numbers]
print(my_list)
OUTPUT
You can see this example also. Here, we are multiplying each list item with 2. If you look closely, we used the same for loop in both examples but the only difference is append function.
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
new_list = []
for num in numbers:
new_list.append(num * 2)
print(new_list)
# List Comprehension Example
print("===================")
my_list = [num * 2 for num in numbers]
print(my_list)
OUTPUT
In this example, we are using the List comprehensions to multiply list items with 2, 3. Next, we are finding the square of an each item.
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
double_list = [num * 2 for num in numbers]
print(double_list)
triple_list = [num * 3 for num in numbers]
print(triple_list)
square_list = [num ** 2 for num in numbers]
print(square_list)
OUTPUT
Above example looks easy and readable. Let me use the regular approach to achieve the same result.
This is same as above example. However, this time, we are comparing the regular approach and Python list comprehensions.
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
new_list1 = []
new_list2 = []
new_list3 = []
for num in numbers:
new_list1.append(num * 2)
new_list2.append(num * 3)
new_list3.append(num ** 2)
print(new_list1)
print(new_list2)
print(new_list3)
# List Comprehension Example
print("===================")
double_list = [num * 2 for num in numbers]
print(double_list)
triple_list = [num * 3 for num in numbers]
print(triple_list)
square_list = [num ** 2 for num in numbers]
print(square_list)
OUTPUT
This is an another example to understand this list comprehensions. First List multiply each item with itself and so on. Here, the parenthesis decides the priority of calculation. For example, 2 * 2 + 1 means 4 + 1, where as 2 * (2 + 1) means 2 * 3 .
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
double_list = [num * num for num in numbers]
print(double_list)
triple_list = [num * num + 1 for num in numbers]
print(triple_list)
square_list = [num * (num + 2) for num in numbers]
print(square_list)
s_list = [num * (num + 4) for num in numbers]
print(s_list)
OUTPUT
Python List Comprehension If
In all our previous examples, we used for loop to iterate each list item and performing calculation. What if, we want to check some conditions using this list comprehensions?
In this example, we are using the if statement to check and display the even numbers from a numbers list. If you look closer, first we placed for loop within the [], next we placed the if statement. At last, we placed the appended item before for loop.
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
new_list = []
for num in numbers:
if num % 2 == 0:
new_list.append(num)
print(new_list)
# List Comprehension Example
print("===================")
my_list = [num for num in numbers if num % 2 == 0]
print(my_list)
OUTPUT
Python List Comprehension Multiple Conditions
The Python programming language also allows you to use multiple conditions. In this example, we are using multiple if statements to check the item or value divided by 2 equals to 0. If True, it checks the item is also divisible by 5. If both are true then that number will be added to my_list.
new_list = []
for num in range(1, 150):
if num % 2 == 0 and num % 5 == 0:
new_list.append(num)
print(new_list)
# List Comprehension Example
print("===================")
my_list = [num for num in range(1, 150) if num % 2 == 0 if num % 5 == 0]
print(my_list)
OUTPUT
Python List Comprehension If Else
In this example, we are using the If else in Python list comprehensions. This example check and displays whether the value is even or odd.
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
print(numbers)
my_list = ["Even" if num % 2 == 0 else "Odd" for num in numbers]
print(my_list)
OUTPUT
Python List Comprehensions Nested For Loop
In this example, we are using the List comprehensions with nested for loops. To demonstrate the same, we are printing the multiplication table.
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
my_list = [[i * j for j in range(1, 11)] for i in range(2, 4)]
print(my_list)
# Same using For loop
print("------------------------------")
for i in range(2, 4):
for j in range(1, 11):
print(f"{i} * {j} = {i * j}")
OUTPUT
In this example, we transposing the 3 * 3 matrix using the list comprehension. To achieve the same, we need Nested List comprehension in Python.
my_list = [[10, 20, 30], [40, 50, 60], [70, 80, 90]]
print(my_list)
new_list = [[row[i] for row in my_list] for i in range(3)]
print(new_list)
OUTPUT
In this example, we used the Nested list comprehension to convert the nested list to normal list.
my_list = [[10, 20, 30], [40, 50, 60], [70, 80, 90]]
print(my_list)
new_list = [item for row in my_list for item in row]
print(new_list)
# Same using For loop
print("------------------------------")
for_list = []
for row in my_list:
for item in row:
for_list.append(item)
print(for_list)
OUTPUT
In this example, First, we used adding each list item in first list with each list item in second list. I mean, [10 + 40, 20 + 40, 30 + 40], [10 + 50, 20 + 50, 30 + 50] so on. Within the second statement, we are using the list comprehension to create a list of tuples by combining two lists.
my_list1 = [10, 20, 30]
my_list2 = [40, 50, 60]
new_list = [[i + j for i in my_list1] for j in my_list2]
print(new_list)
print("------------------")
new_list2 = [[(i, j) for i in my_list1] for j in my_list2]
print(new_list2)
OUTPUT
Python List Comprehensions on String List
So far, we are using the numerical list items to perform numerical calculations. However, you can use this Python List comprehensions on string list.
In this example, we will show you, how to use the Built-in functions within the List comprehensions. The first list applies lower function on each list item to convert them to lowercase. The second list applies upper function to convert the list items to uppercase.
fruits = ['ApplE', 'OraNGe', 'GrAPe', 'BaNAna']
print(fruits)
l_list = [a.lower() for a in fruits]
print(l_list)
u_list = [a.upper() for a in fruits]
print(u_list)
OUTPUT
For better understanding, we used few more functions. The first list used the swapcase function to swap the letter cases. The second statement used the len function to find and return the length of each item in a string list. Within the last list, we are capturing the first letter of each item.
fruits = ['ApplE', 'OraNGeS', 'GrAPe', 'BaNAna']
print(fruits)
swap_list = [a.swapcase() for a in fruits]
print(swap_list)
len_list = [len(a) for a in fruits]
print(len_list)
first_letters = [item[0] for item in fruits]
print(first_letters)
OUTPUT
In this example, we are mixing the numbers and string items. For this, we used the Python Nested List comprehensions. This will return the combination of each fruit with number. I mean, Apple with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Next, Orange with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 so on.
fruits = ['Apple', 'Orange', 'Grape', 'Banana', 'Kiwi']
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
my_list = [[(fruit, num) for fruit in fruits] for num in numbers]
print(my_list)
# Same using For loop
print("------------------------------")
new_list = []
for fruit in fruits:
for num in numbers:
new_list.append((fruit, num))
print(new_list)
OUTPUT
Python List Comprehensions on String Data
You can also use this List comprehensions on string data. In this example, we are extracting each character from a string, and creating a new string.
string = 'Python'
print(string)
my_list = [word for word in string]
print(my_list)
# Same using For loop
print("------------------------------")
new_list = []
for word in string:
new_list.append(word)
print(new_list)
OUTPUT
This example is same as the above example, we just changed the string value from Python to Tutorial Gateway.
string = 'Tutorial Gateway'
print(string)
my_list = [word for word in string]
print(my_list)
# Same using For loop
print("------------------------------")
new_list = []
for word in string:
new_list.append(word)
print(new_list)
OUTPUT
Python List Comprehensions Vs Lambda Function
If less lines of code is our priority then we are not limited to list comprehensions. You can use the Lambda function to achieve the same with fewer lines of code.
In this example, we are using the traditional approach, list comprehension approach, and lambda function to multiply each item in a list with itself. By seeing the code, you can see that the lambda function is also a good. However, the list comprehension code is easy to read and faster to execute.
#Python List Comprehensions
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
new_list = []
for num in numbers:
new_list.append(num * num)
print(new_list)
# List Comprehension Example
print("===================")
my_list = [num * num for num in numbers]
print(my_list)
# Lambda Function Example
print("===================")
this_list = list(map(lambda num: num * num, numbers))
print(this_list)
OUTPUT
This is an another example to differentiate the code readability between the List comprehensions and lambda functions in Python.
#Python List Comprehensions
numbers = [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100]
double_list = [num * 2 for num in numbers]
print(double_list)
triple_list = [num * 3 for num in numbers]
print(triple_list)
square_list = [num ** 2 for num in numbers]
print(square_list)
#Lambda Function Example
print("===================")
d_list = list(map(lambda num: num * 2, numbers))
print(d_list)
t_list = list(map(lambda num: num * 3, numbers))
print(d_list)
s_list = list(map(lambda num: num ** 2, numbers))
print(d_list)
OUTPUT
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