Zipping lists within a list in Python

Question

I have a list of lists

big_list = [['a1','b1','c1'], ['a2','b2','c3'], ['a3','b3','c3']]

how do I zip the lists within this list?

what I want to do is zip(list1,list2,list3), but do this dynamically

I believe it has to do smth with args and kwargs which I am not familiar with, any explanation is welcome

Thanks,

Martijn Pieters · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-30 11:42:23Z

5

Use the *args argument expansion syntax:

zip(*big_list)

The * (splash) tells Python to take each element in an iterable and apply it as a separate argument to the function.

Demo:

>>> big_list = [['a1','b1','c1'], ['a2','b2','c3'], ['a3','b3','c3']]
>>> zip(*big_list)
[('a1', 'a2', 'a3'), ('b1', 'b2', 'b3'), ('c1', 'c3', 'c3')]

answered Oct 30, 2013 at 11:42

Martijn Pieters

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