Creating a list from another list - Python

Question

I'm trying to create a program where the user inputs a list of strings, each one in a separate line. I want to be able to be able to return, for example, the third word in the second line. The input below would then return "blue".

input_string("""The cat in the hat 
Red fish blue fish """)

Currently I have this:

def input_string(input):
    words = input.split('\n')

So I can output a certain line using words[n], but how do output a specific word in a specific line? I've been trying to implement being able to type words[1][2] but my attempts at creating a multidimensional array have failed.

I've been trying to split each words[n] for a few hours now and google hasn't helped. I apologize if this is completely obvious, but I just started using Python a few days ago and am completely stuck.

Splitting on newlines gives a list of lines, then split a line on whitespace to a get a list of words on that line. — Keith
– Keith, Commented Jul 18, 2013 at 19:31

jabaldonedo · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-18 19:34:26Z

5

It is as simple as:

input_string = ("""The cat in the hat 
Red fish blue fish """)

words = [i.split(" ") for i in  input_string.split('\n')]

It generates:

[['The', 'cat', 'in', 'the', 'hat', ''], ['Red', 'fish', 'blue', 'fish', '']]

answered Jul 18, 2013 at 19:34

jabaldonedo

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Tom · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-18 19:34:13Z

1

It sounds like you want to split on os.linesep (the line separator for the current OS) before you split on space. Something like:

import os

def input_string(input)
   words = []
   for line in input.split(os.linesep):
       words.append(line.split())

That will give you a list of word lists for each line.

answered Jul 18, 2013 at 19:34

Tom

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1 Comment

2rs2ts Over a year ago

You probably shouldn't use os.linesep: stackoverflow.com/a/6165711/691859

2rs2ts · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-18 19:47:04Z

1

There is a method called splitlines() as well. It will split on newlines. If you don't pass it any arguments, it will remove the newline character. If you pass it True, it will keep it there, but separate the lines nonetheless.

words = [line.split() for line in input_string.splitlines()]

answered Jul 18, 2013 at 19:47

2rs2ts

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J David Smith · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-18 19:35:16Z

0

Try this:

lines = input.split('\n')
words = []
for line in lines:
    words.append(line.split(' '))

In english:

construct a list of lines, this would be analogous to reading from a file.
loop over each line, splitting it into a list of words
append the list of words to another list. this produces a list of lists.

answered Jul 18, 2013 at 19:35

J David Smith

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