python: convert "5,4,2,4,1,0" into [[5, 4], [2, 4], [1, 0]]

Question

Is there a "straightforward" way to convert a str containing numbers into a list of [x,y] ints?

# from: '5,4,2,4,1,0,3,0,5,1,3,3,14,32,3,5'
# to: [[5, 4], [2, 4], [1, 0], [3, 0], [5, 1], [3, 3], [14, 32], [3, 5]]

By the way, the following works, but wouldn't call it straightforward... Also, it can be assumed that the input str has been validated to make sure that it only contains an even number of numbers interleaved by commas.

num_str = '5,4,2,4,1,0,3,0,5,1,3,3,14,32,3,5'
numpairs_lst = []      # ends up as [[5, 4], [2, 4], [1, 0], ...]

current_num_str = ''   # the current num within the str; stop when a comma is found
xy_pair = []           # this is one of the [x,y] pairs -> [5, 4] 
for ix,c in enumerate(num_str):
    if c == ',':
        xy_pair.append(int(current_num_str))
        current_num_str = ''
        if len(xy_pair) == 2:
            numpairs_lst.append(xy_pair)
            xy_pair = []
    else:
        current_num_str += c

# and, take care of last number...
xy_pair.append(int(current_num_str))
numpairs_lst.append(xy_pair)

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65833670/converting-a-list-of-strings-into-a-nested-list-of-integers

Answer 1

There are two important one line idioms in Python that help make this "straightforward".

The first idiom, use zip(). From the Python documents:

The left-to-right evaluation order of the iterables is guaranteed. This makes possible an idiom for clustering a data series into n-length groups using zip(*[iter(s)]*n).

So applying to your example:

>>> num_str = '5,4,2,4,1,0,3,0,5,1,3,3,14,32,3,5'
>>> zip(*[iter(num_str.split(","))]*2)
[('5', '4'), ('2', '4'), ('1', '0'), ('3', '0'), ('5', '1'), 
('3', '3'), ('14', '32'), ('3', '5')]

That produces tuples each of length 2.

If you want the length of the sub elements to be different:

>>> zip(*[iter(num_str.split(","))]*4)
[('5', '4', '2', '4'), ('1', '0', '3', '0'), ('5', '1', '3', '3'), 
('14', '32', '3', '5')]

The second idiom is list comprehensions. If you want sub elements to be lists, wrap in a comprehension:

>>> [list(t) for t in zip(*[iter(num_str.split(","))]*4)]
[['5', '4', '2', '4'], ['1', '0', '3', '0'], ['5', '1', '3', '3'], 
['14', '32', '3', '5']]
>>> [list(t) for t in zip(*[iter(num_str.split(","))]*2)]
[['5', '4'], ['2', '4'], ['1', '0'], ['3', '0'], ['5', '1'], ['3', '3'], 
['14', '32'], ['3', '5']]

Any sub element groups that are not complete will be truncated by zip(). So if your string is not a multiple of 2, for example, you will loose the last element.

If you want to return sub elements that are not complete (ie, if your num_str is not a multiple of the sub element's length) use a slice idiom:

>>> l=num_str.split(',')
>>> [l[i:i+2] for i in range(0,len(l),2)]
[['5', '4'], ['2', '4'], ['1', '0'], ['3', '0'], ['5', '1'], 
['3', '3'], ['14', '32'], ['3', '5']]
>>> [l[i:i+7] for i in range(0,len(l),7)]
[['5', '4', '2', '4', '1', '0', '3'], ['0', '5', '1', '3', '3', '14', '32'], 
['3', '5']]

If you want each element to be an int, you can apply that prior to the other transforms discussed here:

>>> nums=[int(x) for x in num_str.split(",")]
>>> zip(*[iter(nums)]*2)
# etc etc etc

As pointed out in the comments, with Python 2.4+, you can also replace the list comprehension with a Generator Expression by replacing the [ ] with ( ) as in:

 >>> nums=(int(x) for x in num_str.split(","))
 >>> zip(nums,nums)
 [(5, 4), (2, 4), (1, 0), (3, 0), (5, 1), (3, 3), (14, 32), (3, 5)]
 # or map(list,zip(nums,nums)) for the list of lists version...

If your string is long, and you know that you only need 2 elements, this is more efficient.