Print list without brackets in a single row

Question

I have a list in Python e.g.

names = ["Sam", "Peter", "James", "Julian", "Ann"]

I want to print the array in a single line without the normal " []

names = ["Sam", "Peter", "James", "Julian", "Ann"]
print (names)

Will give the output as;

["Sam", "Peter", "James", "Julian", "Ann"]

That is not the format I want instead I want it to be like this;

Sam, Peter, James, Julian, Ann

Note: It must be in a single row.

score 321 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 05 '18 at 14:51

321

print(', '.join(names))

This, like it sounds, just takes all the elements of the list and joins them with ', '.

edited Oct 05 '18 at 14:51

Jean-François Fabre

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answered Jun 24 '12 at 14:01

FatalError

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If some elements in `names` aren't strings, use `print(', '.join(map(str,name)))` instead. – Anonymous Dec 01 '19 at 09:43
This comment is very useful. – Abhimanyu Shekhawat Nov 21 '20 at 21:21

score 103 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 27 '18 at 00:54

103

Here is a simple one.

names = ["Sam", "Peter", "James", "Julian", "Ann"]
print(*names, sep=", ")

the star unpacks the list and return every element in the list.

edited Aug 27 '18 at 00:54

Steve Bennett

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answered Jan 31 '16 at 20:24

Jianru Shi

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In `python 2.7.6`, This is a `SyntaxError: invalid syntax`. – Fredrick Gauss Feb 25 '16 at 13:01
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@FredrickGauss if you add `from __future__ import print_function` it'll work in python 2 as well. – Anthony Sottile Aug 26 '17 at 22:07
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This is the correct answer as it also works with non-strings. – otocan Feb 28 '18 at 16:19

Steve Bennett · Answer 3 · 2014-01-20T00:13:59.383

58

General solution, works on arrays of non-strings:

>>> print str(names)[1:-1]
'Sam', 'Peter', 'James', 'Julian', 'Ann'

edited Jan 20 '14 at 00:13

answered Feb 04 '13 at 02:45

Steve Bennett

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This doesn't meet the stated requirement. Note the OP's example showing the resulting names without quotes. – John Y Sep 06 '13 at 20:32
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@SteveBennett can you please explain the slicing [1:-1] in your answer. I just started learning python. Thank you. – Charan Aug 02 '15 at 07:03
4

`str(names)` generates a string like `['Sam', 'Peter'...'Ann']`. We don't want the square brackets, hence slice from the 2nd character to the second last character. – Steve Bennett Aug 02 '15 at 13:05

score 26 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 06 '16 at 07:38

If the input array is Integer type then you need to first convert array into string type array and then use join method for joining with , or space whatever you want. e.g:

>>> arr = [1, 2, 4, 3]
>>> print(", " . join(arr))
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: sequence item 0: expected string, int found
>>> sarr = [str(a) for a in arr]
>>> print(", " . join(sarr))
1, 2, 4, 3
>>>

Direct using of join which will join the integer and string will throw error as show above.

lyerox · Answer 5 · 2017-03-02T01:17:42.063

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There are two answers , First is use 'sep' setting

>>> print(*names, sep = ', ')

The other is below

>>> print(', '.join(names))

edited Mar 02 '17 at 01:17

answered Mar 01 '17 at 04:20

lyerox

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score 12 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 24 '12 at 14:02

12

This is what you need

", ".join(names)

answered Jun 24 '12 at 14:02

user278064

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It wraps the result in quotes. – Fredrick Gauss Sep 07 '17 at 05:43

score 8 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 11 '20 at 11:45

8

try to use an asterisk before list's name with print statement:

names = ["Sam", "Peter", "James", "Julian", "Ann"]  
print(*names)

output:

Sam Peter James Julian Ann

answered Dec 11 '20 at 11:45

Aleksei Cherniaev

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WOW, this is awesome! – Carlo Feb 06 '22 at 17:53

Vineeth Sai · Answer 8 · 2019-01-24T11:37:39.117

','.join(list) will work only if all the items in the list are strings. If you are looking to convert a list of numbers to a comma separated string. such as a = [1, 2, 3, 4] into '1,2,3,4' then you can either

str(a)[1:-1] # '1, 2, 3, 4'

or

str(a).lstrip('[').rstrip(']') # '1, 2, 3, 4'

although this won't remove any nested list.

To convert it back to a list

a = '1,2,3,4'
import ast
ast.literal_eval('['+a+']')
#[1, 2, 3, 4]

score 6 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 22 '20 at 00:22

For array of integer type, we need to change it to string type first and than use join function to get clean output without brackets.

    arr = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]    
    print(', '.join(map(str, arr)))

OUTPUT - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

For array of string type, we need to use join function directly to get clean output without brackets.

    arr = ["Ram", "Mohan", "Shyam", "Dilip", "Sohan"]
    print(', '.join(arr)

OUTPUT - Ram, Mohan, Shyam, Dilip, Sohan

score 4 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 17 '19 at 11:37

4

print(*names)

this will work in python 3 if you want them to be printed out as space separated. If you need comma or anything else in between go ahead with .join() solution

answered Nov 17 '19 at 11:37

pramodpxi

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score 3 · Answer 11 · answered Apr 29 '15 at 00:32

3

You need to loop through the list and use end=" "to keep it on one line

names = ["Sam", "Peter", "James", "Julian", "Ann"]
    index=0
    for name in names:
        print(names[index], end=", ")
        index += 1

answered Apr 29 '15 at 00:32

Tofu Warrior

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OP says it must be in a single row. – Ali Nov 22 '15 at 12:12

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Feb 25 '16 at 12:59

I don't know if this is efficient as others but simple logic always works:

import sys
name = ["Sam", "Peter", "James", "Julian", "Ann"]
for i in range(0, len(names)):
    sys.stdout.write(names[i])
    if i != len(names)-1:
        sys.stdout.write(", ")

Output:

Sam, Peter, James, Julian, Ann

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 15 '19 at 17:01

The following function will take in a list and return a string of the lists' items. This can then be used for logging or printing purposes.

def listToString(inList):
    outString = ''
    if len(inList)==1:
        outString = outString+str(inList[0])
    if len(inList)>1:
        outString = outString+str(inList[0])
        for items in inList[1:]:
            outString = outString+', '+str(items)
    return outString

Print list without brackets in a single row

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