How to convert list to string [duplicate]

Question

How can I convert a list to a string using Python?

Haddock

str(anything) will convert any python object into its string representation. Similar to the output you get if you do print(anything), but as a string. – Aby

So one way to make this different than that one is to suggest using json to do it like #17796946. Using json easily allows the reverse process (string to list) to take place. But the OP really did need to explain themselves. Is it for display only or some other purpose? – Plutus

Please give an example of the format you want. – Pinery

Use json.dumps(SOME_LIST) if you want [1,2,3] to become "[1,2,3]". For example, if you wanted to insert the list into a data table column that accepts strings. – Makassar

Answer 1

Use ''.join:

xs = ['1', '2', '3']
s = ''.join(xs)

---

If the list contains integers, convert the elements to string before joining them:

xs = [1, 2, 3]
s = ''.join(str(x) for x in xs)

Stereograph

@SenthilKumaran If the resulting string requires separate items such as when passing a list of files to a process, then "" has to be changed to " " (notice the space between the quotes). Otherwise, you end up with a contiguous string ("123" instead of "1 2 3"). This is OK if that was the intention, but needs to be mentioned in the response. – Dilatory

Just gonna point out that the second form works fine on almost any (single-depth) list. – Balanchine

I was looking for this here and found it elsewhere: If you want to have a newline for every list element (might be useful for long-string lists): print ("\n".join(['I', 'would', 'expect', 'multiple', 'lines'])) – Amusement

The question may be a duplicate but the answer here is better than there. :) Plus this pops up as the top result on google unlike the other. (which I've noticed a lot with dupes) – Delirious

Agree with @Bogdan. This answer creates a string in which the list elements are joined together with no whitespace or comma in between. You can use ', '.join(list1) to join the elements of the list with comma and whitespace or ' '.join(to) to join with only white space – Abwatt

You can use it with parsing all of the cmd arguments, with test = sys.argv[1:] and then the join method. – Lefkowitz

str(anything) will convert any python object into its string representation. Similar to the output you get if you do print(anything), but as a string. – Quackery

Answer 2

>>> xs = [1, 2, 3]       
>>> " ".join(str(x) for x in xs)
'1 2 3'

Loving

I'd recommend to use: >>> " ".join([str(x) for x in L]) – Stalwart

str(anything) will convert any python object into its string representation. Similar to the output you get if you do print(anything), but as a string. – Quackery

Answer 3

xs = ['L', 'O', 'L']
lol_string = ''.join(map(str, xs))

Giantess

it throw TypeError exception,like this: In [15]: L=['1','2','3'] In [16]: print ''.join(map(str,L)) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TypeError Traceback (most recent call last) <ipython-input-16-f3b8e6cb2622> in <module>() ----> 1 print ''.join(map(str,L)) TypeError: 'str' object is not callable – Houchens

Since it wasn't specific in the question... If you want to preserve single string quotes on your list items (for sending a query to SQL, for instance), you can do something like this. x = [1,2,3] y = "'" + "','".join(map(str, x)) + "'" – Zalea

Anyone who is trying to re-use the string after converting the list to string can you this method: list1 = [1, 2, 3] str1 = ''.join('hello world' + str(e) + 'hello world' for e in list1) Output =========== hello world 1 hello world hello world 2 hello world hello world 3 hello world – Toast

str(anything) will convert any python object into its string representation. Similar to the output you get if you do print(anything), but as a string. – Quackery