Loop for zipping a list with another list of varying size?

Question

I'm trying to make a dictionary with a set number of keys and the values as lists of strings from an already zipped object, like so:

{'FirstKey': ['1234', '5678', '9123'], 'SecondKey': ['null', 'null', 'null']...}

Each string in every values list comes from a different variable, and if I have three variables, I can get the desired result if I manually zip them:

valuesList = zip(finalValue[0], finalValue[1], finalValue[2])

Dictionary = dict(zip(keysList, valuesList))

This works for three variables, but the problem is that the list of variables can differ, and I'm not sure how to make a loop for whatever number. I've tried appending the variables into a list and making a dictionary with the keys and that list, but then the variables become strings and I get:

{'FirstKey': ('finalValue[0]',), 'SecondKey': ('finalValue[1]',)...}

I get an "arg must be a string, bytes or code object" error when I use eval() on the list of variables, so I'm not quite sure what to do. Any help would be appreciated.

It doesn't sound like you actually want to zip two lists of varying size, like your question title implies. It sounds like you want to zip *a varying number of* lists. Yes? — Karl Knechtel, Aug 07 '21 at 16:03
Does https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36901/what-does-double-star-asterisk-and-star-asterisk-do-for-parameters answer your question? — Karl Knechtel, Aug 07 '21 at 16:05

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 07 '21 at 15:59

You may use the star * operator to unpack the list of values without knowing how many there is

finalValue = [
    [1, 2, 3],
    ['a', 'b', 'c'],
    ['d', 'e', 'f']
]

keysList = ['ka', 'kb', 'kc']

valuesList = zip(*finalValue)
result = dict(zip(keysList, valuesList))

print(result)  # {'ka': (1, 'a', 'd'), 'kb': (2, 'b', 'e'), 'kc': (3, 'c', 'f')}

Loop for zipping a list with another list of varying size?

1 Answers1