[*string] vs list(string)

Question

Okay, imagine i have a string, say 'abc def'. If i want to split it into individual characters, i could do [*string] or i could do list(string) which output the same thing ['a', 'b', 'c', ' ', 'd', 'e', 'f']. I was wondering, without using split,
a) are there other methods that could work
b) what is the difference between list(string) and [*string]? Can they be used interchangably and which one is more readable?

Answer 1

Edited with errors rectified as pointed out by Rain.

You can use a for loop to split it up if you want more control. You can then choose to omit the space (or any other character).

string = "abc def"
list = [ ]
for char in string:
if char == " ":
continue
list.append(char)

print(list)

This also works the other way.

list = ['a', 'b', 'c', ' ', 'd', 'e', 'f']

string = ""

for char in list:
if char == " ":
continue
string += char

print(string)

Answer 2

StuartH ,

list ['a', 'b', 'c', ' ', 'd', 'e', 'f']

should be

list = ['a', 'b', 'c', ' ', 'd', 'e', 'f']

and

for char in string:

(the second time) should be

for char in list:

It's inconvenient that you can't flip over to the Code Playground when writing a comment to test for typos.

I used to use the playgrounds of various websites, such as w3schools.com, for that. Now I have Pydroid 3 on my Android phone.

There's a risk using list as a variable name, because that's already the name of the constructor for the list class.

If you later try to use that constructor,

befuddled = list("flabbergasted")

you'll get,

TypeError: 'list' object is not callable

Since list isn't a keyword, you won't get a SyntaxError when assigning to it. Python will happily overwrite the identifier with a new reference. I suspect some IDEs warn you about names like that, but Pydroid 3 doesn't, so I'm learning what to avoid little by little.

Answer 3

# I like this trick:

print(*"spaced") # s p a c e d

Answer 4

Stuart, yes, i could, but it wont be that compact. Alas, i want it to be readable