PEP: 202 Title: List Comprehensions Version: $Revision$ Author: barry@zope.com (Barry Warsaw) Status: Final Type: Standards Track Python-Version: 2.0 Created: 13-Jul-2000 Post-History: Introduction This PEP describes a proposed syntactical extension to Python, list comprehensions. The Proposed Solution It is proposed to allow conditional construction of list literals using for and if clauses. They would nest in the same way for loops and if statements nest now. Rationale List comprehensions provide a more concise way to create lists in situations where map() and filter() and/or nested loops would currently be used. Examples >>> print [i for i in range(10)] [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] >>> print [i for i in range(20) if i%2 == 0] [0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18] >>> nums = [1,2,3,4] >>> fruit = ["Apples", "Peaches", "Pears", "Bananas"] >>> print [(i,f) for i in nums for f in fruit] [(1, 'Apples'), (1, 'Peaches'), (1, 'Pears'), (1, 'Bananas'), (2, 'Apples'), (2, 'Peaches'), (2, 'Pears'), (2, 'Bananas'), (3, 'Apples'), (3, 'Peaches'), (3, 'Pears'), (3, 'Bananas'), (4, 'Apples'), (4, 'Peaches'), (4, 'Pears'), (4, 'Bananas')] >>> print [(i,f) for i in nums for f in fruit if f[0] == "P"] [(1, 'Peaches'), (1, 'Pears'), (2, 'Peaches'), (2, 'Pears'), (3, 'Peaches'), (3, 'Pears'), (4, 'Peaches'), (4, 'Pears')] >>> print [(i,f) for i in nums for f in fruit if f[0] == "P" if i%2 == 1] [(1, 'Peaches'), (1, 'Pears'), (3, 'Peaches'), (3, 'Pears')] >>> print [i for i in zip(nums,fruit) if i[0]%2==0] [(2, 'Peaches'), (4, 'Bananas')] Reference Implementation List comprehensions become part of the Python language with release 2.0, documented in [1]. BDFL Pronouncements - The syntax proposed above is the Right One. - The form [x, y for ...] is disallowed; one is required to write [(x, y) for ...]. - The form [... for x... for y...] nests, with the last index varying fastest, just like nested for loops. References [1] http://www.python.org/doc/current/ref/lists.html#l2h-238 Local Variables: mode: indented-text indent-tabs-mode: nil End: