Could someone, please, explain why .join() behaves in the following way:
input = [1, 0, 5, 3, 4, 12, 19]
a = " ".join(str(input))
print(a)
And the result is:
[ 1 , 0 , 5 , 3 , 4 , 1 2 , 1 9 ]
Not only is there still a list, but also an additional space.
How come?
When I use map() it works:
a = " ".join(list(map(str, input)))
But I would like to know what is wrong with the .join method I’m using.
>Solution :
str(input) returns one string '[1, 0, 5, 3, 4, 12, 19]', so then join uses each character of the string as input (a string is an iterable, like a list), effectively adding a space between each.
The effect is more visible if we join with a -: '[-1-,- -0-,- -5-,- -3-,- -4-,- -1-2-,- -1-9-]'
In contrast, list(map(str, input)) converts each number to string, giving a list of strings (['1', '0', '5', '3', '4', '12', '19']), which join then converts to '1 0 5 3 4 12 19'