A query about list

[Dave Benjamin]

In article <pan.2003.10.09.19.55.31.536797 at softhome.net>, Santanu Chatterjee wrote:
> I am very new to python. I have a query about 
> list in python.
> 
> Suppose I have a list 
> a = [1,[2,3,4],5,6,7,[8,9,10],11,12]
> I want to know if there is any simple python
> facility available that would expand the above list
> to give
> a = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
> 
> I know I can do that with a type() and a for/while loop,
> but is there any simpler way?

Normally, I'd suggest "reduce(operator.add, ...)" to flatten a list, but
since you've got some "naked" entries, that won't work...

I don't know if you consider this simpler, but you could define a reduction
function that checks the type of the second argument, and use it like this:

>>> def merge(x, y):
...     if type(y) is type([]): return x + y
...     return x + [y]
...
>>> reduce(merge, a, [])
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]

Dave

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