printing tab-separated values of a list

Question

Here's my current code:

print(list[0], list[1], list[2], list[3], list[4], sep = '\t')

I'd like to write it better. But

print('\t'.join(list))

won't work because list elements may numbers, other lists, etc., so join would complain.

score 49 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 29 '10 at 04:45

49

print(*list, sep='\t')

Note that you shouldn't use the word list as a variable name, since it's the name of a builtin type.

answered Oct 29 '10 at 04:45

Glenn Maynard

1

seems like an elegant way.. but can someone explain what *list does here? – olala Jan 28 '16 at 20:19
3

@olala it's called unpacking a list. Making it into list[0], list[1], etc. like he did in the question. See for example [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3480184/unpack-a-list-in-python) – Matthias Jul 04 '16 at 16:10
1

for that to work in python 2.7 don't forget to `from __future__ import print_function` as the first line in your file – ihadanny Feb 26 '17 at 14:23
how to assign this value to a variable ? – Happy Coder Feb 28 '21 at 07:15

score 36 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 29 '10 at 04:27

36

print('\t'.join(map(str,list)))

answered Oct 29 '10 at 04:27

fabrizioM

score 12 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 22 '14 at 18:51

12

print('\t'.join([str(x) for x in list]))

answered Jul 22 '14 at 18:51

cred

3 Answers3