How do I convert a list into a string with spaces in Python?

Question

How can I convert a list into a space-separated string in Python?

For example, I want to convert this list:

my_list = ["how", "are", "you"]

into the string "how are you".

The spaces are important. I don't want to get "howareyou".

Answer 1

" ".join(my_list)

You need to join with a space, not an empty string.

Answer 2

I'll throw this in as an alternative just for the heck of it, even though it's pretty much useless when compared to " ".join(my_list) for strings. For non-strings (such as an array of ints) this may be better:

" ".join(str(item) for item in my_list)

Answer 3

For Non String list we can do like this as well

" ".join(map(str, my_list))

Answer 4

So in order to achieve a desired output, we should first know how the function works.

The syntax for join() method as described in the python documentation is as follows:

string_name.join(iterable)

Things to be noted:

• It returns a string concatenated with the elements of iterable. The separator between the elements being the string_name.
• Any non-string value in the iterable will raise a TypeError

Now, to add white spaces, we just need to replace the string_name with a " " or a ' ' both of them will work and place the iterable that we want to concatenate.

So, our function will look something like this:

' '.join(my_list)

But, what if we want to add a particular number of white spaces in between our elements in the iterable ?

We need to add this:

str(number*" ").join(iterable)

here, the number will be a user input.

So, for example if number=4.

Then, the output of str(4*" ").join(my_list) will be how are you, so in between every word there are 4 white spaces.

Answer 5

you can iterate through it to do it

my_list = ['how', 'are', 'you']
my_string = " "
for a in my_list:
    my_string = my_string + ' ' + a
print(my_string)

output is

 how are you

you can strip it to get

how are you

like this

my_list = ['how', 'are', 'you']
my_string = " "
for a in my_list:
    my_string = my_string + ' ' + a
print(my_string.strip())

Answer 6

Why don't you add a space in the items of the list itself, like :
list = ["how ", "are ", "you "]