Enumerate with letters instead of numbers

Question

Is there a way in python to perform the same function as enumerate() but with letters instead?

For example

x = ['block', 'cheese']

for i, word in enumerate(x):
    print((i, word))

would produce

(1, 'block')
(2, 'cheese')

Is there a straightforward way to produce this?

('A', 'block')
('B', 'cheese')

@Kingsley - Good question. It should probably perform the same way Excel performs, with AA, etc. — Adam_G, Sep 13 '20 at 20:57
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29351492/how-to-make-a-continuous-alphabetic-list-python-from-a-z-then-from-aa-ab-ac-e — Chris_Rands, Sep 13 '20 at 21:05

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 13 '20 at 20:58

7

For up to 26 elements you can do:

import string

x = ['block', 'cheese']

for i, word in zip(string.ascii_uppercase, x):
    print((i, word))

Output

('A', 'block')
('B', 'cheese')

answered Sep 13 '20 at 20:58

DarrylG

14,084
2
15
21

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 13 '20 at 20:57

2

No it's not possible.

But maybe string.ascii_lowercase could help you

import string
string.ascii_lowercase
>>>>> 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
string.ascii_lowercase[0]
>>>>> a

answered Sep 13 '20 at 20:57

AlexisG

2,337
3
8
24

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 13 '20 at 21:12

You could relatively easy mimic Excel's behaviour with a generator:

def mimic_excel():
    for i in range(0, 26):
        yield chr(i + 65)

    i, j = [0, 0]

    for j in range(0, 26):
        for i in range(0, 26):
            yield "{}{}".format(chr(j + 65), chr(i + 65))


for letter in mimic_excel():
    print(letter)

This yields

A
B
C
...
ZX
ZY
ZZ

Enumerate with letters instead of numbers

3 Answers3