append to items depending on prior item

[M. Clift]

Hi All,

I have tried to come up with a way to do this myself and all I end up with
is very long code.

What I have is a say item1, item4, item2, item1 etc...

What I want to do is append to each item an extra value depending on the
previous item.

from random import *

items = [' item1',' item4',' item2',' item1']

items[0].append choice('1','2','3')
print items

for idx in range(len(items)):
    if previous item == ['item1']:
        next item.append choice('a','b','c')
    if previous item == ['item2']:
        next item.append choice('d','e','f')

        print items


appended items = item1b, item4a, item2f etc...

Now I know that the code is hopelessly wrong - you can't append a string,
but you get the idea. Doing it using if statements could go on and on. Could
someone show me a short way

Thanks,

M