How to convert a list to string in Python?

Python lists and strings are similar in many ways but they are not the same. A list in python can hold any type of data in a single variable while a string can hold a set of characters.

If you regularly program using Python language then you might face a situation where you need to convert a list to a string. The examples of conversion of a list to a string are given below.

Example 1–

Input: ['Python', 'is', 'a', 'programming', 'language']
Output: Python is a programming language

Example 2–

Input: ['There', 'are', 10, 'apples', 'and', 15, 'mangoes','in', 'basket']
Output: There are 10 apples and 15 mangoes in basket

In this article, you will see different methods to change a python list to a string.

Method 1: Iterating through the list

The first way is to iterate through the list and keep adding its elements to an empty string.

For example –

# Python program to convert a list to string

# Function to convert a list to string
def listToString(list1):

      str1 = ""
      for i in list1:
          str1 += i
     return str1
list1 = ['Python ', 'is ', 'a ', 'programming ', 'language']
print(listToString(list1))

When you execute this you will see the given output.

Method 2: Using join() method

The join() method in Python takes all items in an iterable and joins them into one string. This method only takes a string as an argument so before using any other data type you need to convert it into a string. Now see the given Python code.

# Python program to convert a list to string using join() function

# Function to convert list to string
def listToString(list1):

        # initializing an empty string
        str1 = " "

        return (str1.join(str(i) for i in list1))

list1 = ['There', 'are', 10, 'apples', 'and', 15, 'mangoes','in', 'basket']
print(listToString(list1))

This will produce the given output.

Method 3: Using list comprehension

We can make the code of method 2 shorter by using list comprehension. You can see the example which is given below.

# Python program to convert a list to string using list comprehension

list1 = ['There', 'are', 10, 'apples', 'and', 15, 'mangoes','in', 'basket']
str1= ' '.join(str(i) for i in list1)
print(str1)

After executing this code you will see the following output.

Method 4: Using map() function

The map() function in Python applies a function to each element of an iterable. This function takes two arguments first is function and the second is iterable and returns a map object.

# Python program to convert a list to string using map() function

list1 = ['There', 'are', 10, 'apples', 'and', 15, 'mangoes','in', 'basket']

# using map() function
str1 = ' '.join(map(str, list1))

print(str1)

On executing this code it will produce the given output.