In this ultimate guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about joining list elements in Python. To give you a quick overview, let’s have a look at the following problem.
Problem: Given a list of elements. How to join the elements by concatenating all elements in the list?
Example: You want to convert list ['learn ', 'python ', 'fast'] to the string 'learn python fast'.
Quick Solution: to convert a list of strings to a string, do the following.
- Call the
''.join(list)method on the empty string''that glues together all strings in thelistand returns a new string. - The string on which you call the join method is used as a delimiter between the list elements.
- If you don’t need a delimiter, just use the empty string
''.
Code: Let’s have a look at the code.
lst = ['learn ', 'python ', 'fast']
print(''.join(lst))
The output is:
learn python fast
Try it yourself in our interactive Python shell:
You can also use another delimiter string, for example, the comma:
lst = ['learn' , 'python', 'fast']
print(','.join(lst))
# learn,python,fast
Python Join List Syntax
Python Join List of Lists
Python Join List of Strings With Comma
Problem: Given a list of strings. How to convert the list to a string by concatenating all strings in the list—using a comma as the delimiter between the list elements?
Example: You want to convert list ['learn', 'python', 'fast'] to the string 'learn,python,fast'.
Solution: to convert a list of strings to a string, call the ','.join(list) method on the delimiter string ',' that glues together all strings in the list and returns a new string.
Code: Let’s have a look at the code.
lst = ['learn', 'python', 'fast']
print(','.join(lst))
The output is:
learn,python,fast
Python Join List of Strings With Newline
Problem: Given a list of strings. How to convert the list to a string by concatenating all strings in the list—using a newline character as the delimiter between the list elements?
Example: You want to convert list ['learn', 'python', 'fast'] to the string 'learn\npython\nfast' or as a multiline string:
'''learn python fast'''
Solution: to convert a list of strings to a string, call the '\n'.join(list) method on the newline character '\n' that glues together all strings in the list and returns a new string.
Code: Let’s have a look at the code.
lst = ['learn', 'python', 'fast']
print('\n'.join(lst))
The output is:
learn python fast
Python Join List of Strings With Space
Problem: Given a list of strings. How to convert the list to a string by concatenating all strings in the list—using a space as the delimiter between the list elements?
Example: You want to convert list ['learn', 'python', 'fast'] to the string 'learn python fast'. (Note the empty spaces between the terms.)
Solution: to convert a list of strings to a string, call the ' '.join(list) method on the string ' ' (space character) that glues together all strings in the list and returns a new string.
Code: Let’s have a look at the code.
lst = ['learn', 'python', 'fast']
print(' '.join(lst))
The output is:
learn python fast
Python Join List With Single and Double Quotes
Problem: Given a list of strings. How to convert the list to a string by concatenating all strings in the list—using a comma character followed by an empty space as the delimiter between the list elements? Additionally, you want to wrap each string in double quotes.
Example: You want to convert list ['learn', 'python', 'fast'] to the string '"learn", "python", "fast"' :
Solution: to convert a list of strings to a string, call the ', '.join('"' + x + '"' for x in lst) method on the delimiter string ', ' that glues together all strings in the list and returns a new string. You use a generator expression to modify each element of the original element so that it is enclosed by the double quote " chararacter.
Code: Let’s have a look at the code.
lst = ['learn', 'python', 'fast']
print(', '.join('"' + x + '"' for x in lst))
The output is:
"learn", "python", "fast"
Python Join List With None
Python Join List With Tabs
Python Join List With Delimiter
Python Join List With Carriage Return
Python Join List with Underscore
Python Join List of Integers
Problem: You want to convert a list into a string but the list contains integer values.
Example: Convert the list [1, 2, 3] to a string '123'.
Solution: Use the join method in combination with a generator expression to convert the list of integers to a single string value:
lst = [1, 2, 3]
print(''.join(str(x) for x in lst))
# 123
The generator expression converts each element in the list to a string. You can then combine the string elements using the join method of the string object.
If you miss the conversion from integer to string, you get the following TypeError:
lst = [1, 2, 3]
print(''.join(lst)) '''
Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Users\xcent\Desktop\code.py", line 2, in <module> print(''.join(lst))
TypeError: sequence item 0: expected str instance, int found '''
Python Join List of Floats
Python Join List of Booleans
Python Join List of Tuples
Python Join List of Sets
Python Join List of Bytes
Python Join List of Dictionaries
Python Join List Except First or Last Element
Python Join List Remove Duplicates
Python Join List Reverse
Python Join List Range
Python Join List By Row
Python Join List of Unicode Strings
Python Join List in Pairs
Python Join List as Path
Python Join List Slice
Python Join Specific List Elements
Python Join List of DataFrames
Python Join List Comprehension
Python Join List Map
Python Join List Columns
Where to Go From Here?
Enough theory, let’s get some practice!
To become successful in coding, you need to get out there and solve real problems for real people. That’s how you can become a six-figure earner easily. And that’s how you polish the skills you really need in practice. After all, what’s the use of learning theory that nobody ever needs?
Practice projects is how you sharpen your saw in coding!
Do you want to become a code master by focusing on practical code projects that actually earn you money and solve problems for people?
Then become a Python freelance developer! It’s the best way of approaching the task of improving your Python skills—even if you are a complete beginner.
Join my free webinar “How to Build Your High-Income Skill Python” and watch how I grew my coding business online and how you can, too—from the comfort of your own home.