Is there an easier way to express this list slicing?

[John Henry]

If I have a list of say, 10 elements and I need to slice it into
irregular size list, I would have to create a bunch of temporary
variables and then regroup them afterwords, like:

# Just for illustration. Alist can be any existing 10 element list
a_list=("",)*10
(a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5)=a_list
alist=(a,)
blist=(b,)
clist=(c1,c2,c3)
dlist=(d2,d3,d4,d5)

That obviously work but do I *really* have to do that?

BTW: I know you can do:
alist=a_list[0]
blist=a_list[1]
clist=a_list[2:5]
dlist=a_list[5:]

but I don't see that it's any better.

Can I say something to the effect of:

(a,b,c[0:2],d[0:5])=a_list # Obviously this won't work

??

I am asking this because I have a section of code that contains *lots*
of things like this. It makes the code very unreadable.

Thanks,

 

[Thomas Ploch]

If I have a list of say, 10 elements and I need to slice it into
irregular size list, I would have to create a bunch of temporary
variables and then regroup them afterwords, like:

# Just for illustration. Alist can be any existing 10 element list
a_list=("",)*10
(a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5)=a_list
alist=(a,)
blist=(b,)
clist=(c1,c2,c3)
dlist=(d2,d3,d4,d5)

That obviously work but do I *really* have to do that?

BTW: I know you can do:
alist=a_list[0]
blist=a_list[1]
clist=a_list[2:5]
dlist=a_list[5:]

but I don't see that it's any better.

Can I say something to the effect of:

(a,b,c[0:2],d[0:5])=a_list # Obviously this won't work

??

I am asking this because I have a section of code that contains *lots*
of things like this. It makes the code very unreadable.

Thanks,

Nothing in your code actually __is__ a list. they are all tuples...
A list is:
aList = [a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5]

Thomas

 

[John Henry]

Well, pardoon me.

Next.

If I have a list of say, 10 elements and I need to slice it into
irregular size list, I would have to create a bunch of temporary
variables and then regroup them afterwords, like:

# Just for illustration. Alist can be any existing 10 element list
a_list=("",)*10
(a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5)=a_list
alist=(a,)
blist=(b,)
clist=(c1,c2,c3)
dlist=(d2,d3,d4,d5)

That obviously work but do I *really* have to do that?

BTW: I know you can do:
alist=a_list[0]
blist=a_list[1]
clist=a_list[2:5]
dlist=a_list[5:]

but I don't see that it's any better.

Can I say something to the effect of:

(a,b,c[0:2],d[0:5])=a_list # Obviously this won't work

??

I am asking this because I have a section of code that contains *lots*
of things like this. It makes the code very unreadable.

Thanks,

Nothing in your code actually __is__ a list. they are all tuples...
A list is:
aList = [a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5]

Thomas

 

[Chris Mellon]

If I have a list of say, 10 elements and I need to slice it into
irregular size list, I would have to create a bunch of temporary
variables and then regroup them afterwords, like:

# Just for illustration. Alist can be any existing 10 element list
a_list=("",)*10
(a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5)=a_list
alist=(a,)
blist=(b,)
clist=(c1,c2,c3)
dlist=(d2,d3,d4,d5)

That obviously work but do I *really* have to do that?

BTW: I know you can do:
alist=a_list[0]
blist=a_list[1]
clist=a_list[2:5]
dlist=a_list[5:]

but I don't see that it's any better.

Can I say something to the effect of:

(a,b,c[0:2],d[0:5])=a_list # Obviously this won't work

??

I am asking this because I have a section of code that contains *lots*
of things like this. It makes the code very unreadable.

Thanks,

Nothing in your code actually __is__ a list. they are all tuples...
A list is:
aList = [a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5]

True but not relevant, really, he should have said "sequence". But
more importantly,
you don't show what you do with alist, blist,clist,dlist. Without
knowing what the end result is, nobody is going to be able to help you
eliminate the middle steps.

 

[mdsteele]

Can I say something to the effect of:

(a,b,c[0:2],d[0:5])=a_list # Obviously this won't work

Your best bet is probably:

x = [...some list...]
a,b,c,d = x[:1],x[1:2],x[2:5],x[5:]

I am asking this because I have a section of code that contains *lots*
of things like this. It makes the code very unreadable.

Of course, if you're always slicing up lists the same way (say, into
1,1,3,5 element sections) then you could improve readability by writing
a function that takes the list and returns a tuple of the pieces, such
as:

def slice_list(x):
return x[:1],x[1:2],x[2:5],x[5:]

a,b,c,d = slice_list(first_list)
e,f,g,h = slice_list(second_list)

-Matt

 

[Neil Cerutti]

If I have a list of say, 10 elements and I need to slice it into
irregular size list, I would have to create a bunch of temporary
variables and then regroup them afterwords, like:

# Just for illustration. Alist can be any existing 10 element list
a_list=("",)*10
(a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5)=a_list
alist=(a,)
blist=(b,)
clist=(c1,c2,c3)
dlist=(d2,d3,d4,d5)

That obviously work but do I *really* have to do that?

Please post actual code we can run, rather than text that is
almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Python code.

BTW: I know you can do:
alist=a_list[0]
blist=a_list[1]

Note that alist and blist are not necessarily lists, as you did
not use slice notation.

clist=a_list[2:5]
dlist=a_list[5:]

but I don't see that it's any better.

I think it looks much better, personally.

If you are iterating through that sequence of slices a lot,
consider using a generator that yields the sequence.
... yield items[0:1]
... yield items[1:2]
... yield items[2:5]
... yield items[5:]
... print seq
[0]
[1]
[2, 3, 4]
[5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

 

[Neil Cerutti]

Please post actual code we can run, rather than text that is
almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Python code.

Ummm... that comment is withdrawn. :-O

 

[Paul McGuire]

If I have a list of say, 10 elements and I need to slice it into
irregular size list, I would have to create a bunch of temporary
variables and then regroup them afterwords, like:

# Just for illustration. Alist can be any existing 10 element list
a_list=("",)*10
(a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5)=a_list
alist=(a,)
blist=(b,)
clist=(c1,c2,c3)
dlist=(d2,d3,d4,d5)

That obviously work but do I *really* have to do that?

BTW: I know you can do:
alist=a_list[0]
blist=a_list[1]
clist=a_list[2:5]
dlist=a_list[5:]

but I don't see that it's any better.

The slicing notation is about the best general solution.

If you are doing this a lot, you should write some sort of "break up the
list function". Here's one that takes a list of list lengths to break the
list into.

-- Paul


def splitUp(src,lens):
ret = []
cur = 0
for var,length in varmap:
if length is not None:
ret.append( a_list[cur:cur+length] )
cur += length
else:
ret.append( a_list[cur:] )
return ret


origlist = list("ABCDEFGHIJ")
alist, blist, clist, dlist = splitUp( origlist, (1,1,3,None) )
print alist, blist, clist, dlist

Prints
['A'] ['B'] ['C', 'D', 'E'] ['F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J']

 

[Paul McGuire]

news:[email protected]...

snip

Grrrr... that's what I get for not keeping editor and interpreter windows in
sync. My post was referencing vars I had defined in the interpreter, but
which the function had no clue of. !!! Here's a working version.

-- Paul


def splitUp(src,lens):
ret = []
cur = 0
for length in lens:
if length is not None:
ret.append( src[cur:cur+length] )
cur += length
else:
ret.append( src[cur:] )
return ret

origlist = list("ABCDEFGHIJ")
alist, blist, clist, dlist = splitUp( origlist, (1,1,3,None) )
print alist, blist, clist, dlist

 

[John Henry]

Can I say something to the effect of:

(a,b,c[0:2],d[0:5])=a_list # Obviously this won't work

Your best bet is probably:

x = [...some list...]
a,b,c,d = x[:1],x[1:2],x[2:5],x[5:]

Dude! Why didn't I think of that (tunnel vision).

Thanks,

I am asking this because I have a section of code that contains *lots*
of things like this. It makes the code very unreadable.

Of course, if you're always slicing up lists the same way (say, into
1,1,3,5 element sections) then you could improve readability by writing
a function that takes the list and returns a tuple of the pieces, such
as:

def slice_list(x):
return x[:1],x[1:2],x[2:5],x[5:]

a,b,c,d = slice_list(first_list)
e,f,g,h = slice_list(second_list)

-Matt

 

[John Henry]

news:[email protected]...

snip

Grrrr... that's what I get for not keeping editor and interpreter windows in
sync. My post was referencing vars I had defined in the interpreter, but
which the function had no clue of. !!! Here's a working version.

-- Paul


def splitUp(src,lens):
ret = []
cur = 0
for length in lens:
if length is not None:
ret.append( src[cur:cur+length] )
cur += length
else:
ret.append( src[cur:] )
return ret

origlist = list("ABCDEFGHIJ")
alist, blist, clist, dlist = splitUp( origlist, (1,1,3,None) )
print alist, blist, clist, dlist

Nice.

While we are at it, why not:

class splitUp(object):
def __init__(self,src):
self._src=list(src)
def slice(self, lens):
ret = []
cur = 0
for length in lens:
if length is not None:
ret.append( self._src[cur:cur+length] )
cur += length
else:
ret.append( self._src[cur:] )
return ret

alist, blist, clist, dlist = splitUp("ABCDEFGHIJ").slice((1,1,3,None))
print alist, blist, clist, dlist

Now, that's readable!

 

[John Henry]

news:[email protected]...

snip

Grrrr... that's what I get for not keeping editor and interpreter windows in
sync. My post was referencing vars I had defined in the interpreter, but
which the function had no clue of. !!! Here's a working version.

-- Paul


def splitUp(src,lens):
ret = []
cur = 0
for length in lens:
if length is not None:
ret.append( src[cur:cur+length] )
cur += length
else:
ret.append( src[cur:] )
return ret

origlist = list("ABCDEFGHIJ")
alist, blist, clist, dlist = splitUp( origlist, (1,1,3,None) )
print alist, blist, clist, dlist

Nice.

While we are at it, why not:

class splitUp(object):
def __init__(self,src):
self._src=list(src)
def slice(self, lens):
ret = []
cur = 0
for length in lens:
if length is not None:
ret.append( self._src[cur:cur+length] )
cur += length
else:
ret.append( self._src[cur:] )
return ret

alist, blist, clist, dlist = splitUp("ABCDEFGHIJ").slice((1,1,3,None))
print alist, blist, clist, dlist

Now, that's readable!

Further, if splitUp is a sub-class of string, then I can do:

alist, blist, clist, dlist = "ABCDEFGHIJ".slice((1,1,3,None))

Now, can I override the slice operator?

 

[Thomas Ploch]

If I have a list of say, 10 elements and I need to slice it into
irregular size list, I would have to create a bunch of temporary
variables and then regroup them afterwords, like:

# Just for illustration. Alist can be any existing 10 element list
a_list=("",)*10
(a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5)=a_list
alist=(a,)
blist=(b,)
clist=(c1,c2,c3)
dlist=(d2,d3,d4,d5)

That obviously work but do I *really* have to do that?

BTW: I know you can do:
alist=a_list[0]
blist=a_list[1]
clist=a_list[2:5]
dlist=a_list[5:]

but I don't see that it's any better.

Can I say something to the effect of:

(a,b,c[0:2],d[0:5])=a_list # Obviously this won't work

??

I am asking this because I have a section of code that contains *lots*
of things like this. It makes the code very unreadable.

Thanks,

I had a little bit of fun while writing this:

itemList = (a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5) and
itemList2 = (a1,a2,a3,b,c,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5) the next time.

def getSlices(aCount, bCount, cCount, dCount, items):
a,b,c,d = (items[0:aCount],
items[aCount:aCount+bCount],
items[aCount+bCount:aCount+bCount+cCount],
item[aCount+bCount+cCount:aCount+bCount+cCount+dCount])
return list(a),list(b),list(c),list(d)
['a'] ['b'] ['c1', 'c2', 'c3'] ['d1', 'd2', 'd3', 'd4', 'd5']
['a1', 'a2', 'a3'] ['b'] ['c'] []

%-)

Thomas

 

[John Henry]

Further, if splitUp is a sub-class of string, then I can do:

alist, blist, clist, dlist = "ABCDEFGHIJ".slice((1,1,3,None))

Now, can I override the slice operator?

Maybe like:

alist, blist, clist, dlist = newStr("ABCDEFGHIJ")[1,1,3,None]

where newStr is a sub-class of str, with a __repr__ that takes a
variable list of arguments?

(No clue how to code that yet, still pretty new to this)

Maybe they should make this a standard slicing feature....

 

[John Henry]

Thomas Ploch wrote:

I had a little bit of fun while writing this:

itemList = (a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5) and
itemList2 = (a1,a2,a3,b,c,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5) the next time.

Huh? What's a,b,....d5?

def getSlices(aCount, bCount, cCount, dCount, items):
a,b,c,d = (items[0:aCount],
items[aCount:aCount+bCount],
items[aCount+bCount:aCount+bCount+cCount],
item[aCount+bCount+cCount:aCount+bCount+cCount+dCount])

You meant "items" here, right?

return list(a),list(b),list(c),list(d)
['a'] ['b'] ['c1', 'c2', 'c3'] ['d1', 'd2', 'd3', 'd4', 'd5']
['a1', 'a2', 'a3'] ['b'] ['c'] []

%-)

Thomas

 

[Thomas Ploch]

Thomas Ploch wrote:


Huh? What's a,b,....d5?

Can be any object, as you had in your example in your mail:

If I have a list of say, 10 elements and I need to slice it into
irregular size list, I would have to create a bunch of temporary
variables and then regroup them afterwords, like:

# Just for illustration. Alist can be any existing 10 element list
a_list=("",)*10
(a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5)=a_list
alist=(a,)
blist=(b,)
clist=(c1,c2,c3)
dlist=(d2,d3,d4,d5)

def getSlices(aCount, bCount, cCount, dCount, items):
a,b,c,d = (items[0:aCount],
items[aCount:aCount+bCount],
items[aCount+bCount:aCount+bCount+cCount],
item[aCount+bCount+cCount:aCount+bCount+cCount+dCount])

You meant "items" here, right?

return list(a),list(b),list(c),list(d)

a,b,c,d = getSlices(1,1,3,5,itemList)
print a,b,c,d

['a'] ['b'] ['c1', 'c2', 'c3'] ['d1', 'd2', 'd3', 'd4', 'd5']

a,b,c,d = getSlices(3,1,1,0,itemList2)
print a,b,c,d

['a1', 'a2', 'a3'] ['b'] ['c'] []

%-)

Thomas

 

[John Henry]

Can be any object, as you had in your example in your mail:

Oh, sorry.

 

[Paul McGuire]

Further, if splitUp is a sub-class of string, then I can do:

alist, blist, clist, dlist = "ABCDEFGHIJ".slice((1,1,3,None))

Now, can I override the slice operator?

Maybe like:

alist, blist, clist, dlist = newStr("ABCDEFGHIJ")[1,1,3,None]

No need to contort string, just expand on your earlier idea. I changed your
class name to SplitUp to more more conventional (class names are usually
capitalized), and changed slice to __call__. Then I changed the lens arg to
*lens - note the difference in the calling format. Pretty close to what you
have above. Also, reconsider whether you want the __init__ function
list-ifying the input src - let the caller decide what to send in.

-- Paul

class SplitUp(object):
def __init__(self,src):
self._src=list(src)
def __call__(self, *lens):
ret = []
cur = 0
for length in lens:
if length is not None:
ret.append( self._src[cur:cur+length] )
cur += length
else:
ret.append( self._src[cur:] )
return ret

alist, blist, clist, dlist = SplitUp("ABCDEFGHIJ")(1,1,3,None)
print alist, blist, clist, dlist

Prints:
['A'] ['B'] ['C', 'D', 'E'] ['F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J']

 

[John Henry]

Further, if splitUp is a sub-class of string, then I can do:

alist, blist, clist, dlist = "ABCDEFGHIJ".slice((1,1,3,None))

Now, can I override the slice operator?

Maybe like:

alist, blist, clist, dlist = newStr("ABCDEFGHIJ")[1,1,3,None]

No need to contort string, just expand on your earlier idea. I changed your
class name to SplitUp to more more conventional (class names are usually
capitalized), and changed slice to __call__. Then I changed the lens arg to
*lens - note the difference in the calling format. Pretty close to what you
have above. Also, reconsider whether you want the __init__ function
list-ifying the input src - let the caller decide what to send in.

In fact, should be possible to make that any object the caller want to
send in...

-- Paul

class SplitUp(object):
def __init__(self,src):
self._src=list(src)
def __call__(self, *lens):
ret = []
cur = 0
for length in lens:
if length is not None:
ret.append( self._src[cur:cur+length] )
cur += length
else:
ret.append( self._src[cur:] )
return ret

alist, blist, clist, dlist = SplitUp("ABCDEFGHIJ")(1,1,3,None)
print alist, blist, clist, dlist

Prints:
['A'] ['B'] ['C', 'D', 'E'] ['F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J']

Thanks for the help,

 

[Dennis Lee Bieber]

# Just for illustration. Alist can be any existing 10 element list
a_list=("",)*10
(a,b,c1,c2,c3,d1,d2,d3,d4,d5)=a_list
alist=(a,)
blist=(b,)
clist=(c1,c2,c3)
dlist=(d2,d3,d4,d5)

These are tuples, not lists!
--
Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber KD6MOG
(e-mail address removed) (e-mail address removed)
HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/
(Bestiaria Support Staff: (e-mail address removed))
HTTP://www.bestiaria.com/