4.29: Splitting a List into a List of Lists
- Page ID
- 14473
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def splitIntoGroupsOf(groupSize, theList):
# splits a list into a list of lists, where the inner lists have at
# most groupSize number of items.
result = []
for i in range(0, len(theList), groupSize):
result.append(theList[i:i + groupSize])
return result
The splitIntoGroupsOf() function (which will be called by the startGameAnimation() function) splits a list into a list of lists, where the inner lists have groupSize number of items in them. (The last list could have less if there are less than groupSize items left over.)
The call to range() on line 5 [159] uses the three-parameter form of range(). (If you are unfamiliar with this form, take a look at http://invpy.com/range.) Let’s use an example. If the length of the list is 20 and the groupSize parameter is 8, then range(0, len(theList), groupSize) evaluates to range(0, 20, 8). This will give the i variable the values 0, 8, and 16 for the three iterations of the for loop.
The list slicing on line 6 [160] with theList[i:i + groupSize] creates the lists that are added to the result list. On each iteration where i is 0, 8, and 16 (and groupSize is 8), this list slicing expression would be theList[0:8], then theList[8:16] on the second iteration, and then theList[16:24] on the third iteration.
Note that even though the largest index of theList would be 19 in our example, theList[16:24] won’t raise an IndexError error even though 24 is larger than 19. It will just create a list slice with the remaining items in the list. List slicing doesn’t destroy or change the original list stored in theList. It just copies a portion of it to evaluate to a new list value. This new list value is the list that is appended to the list in the result variable on line 160. So when we return result at the end of this function, we are returning a list of lists.