convert list of tuples into several lists

[Steven Bethard]

Peter Hansen wrote:
> Steven Bethard wrote:
> 
>> Diez B. Roggisch wrote:
>>
>>> zip(*[(1,4),(2,5),(3,6)])
>>
>> While this is also the approach I would use, it is worth noting that 
>> Guido thinks of this as an abuse of the argument passing machinery:
>>
>> http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-July/037346.html
> 
> I'm not sure that's the same thread I already read where he
> dissed zip like that, but what I'm wondering is what is the
> alternative?  Is there an equally elegant approach that
> doesn't "abuse" the argument passing machinery?

I know I found it in another thread before.  I think he's said it a few 
times.

Personally, I wish that, if we're not to use zip like this, that Python 
would provide a builtin 'unzip' to do the corresponding thing.


If you're interested in a recipe that does this, you can look at my 
'starzip' recipe which is basically 'unzip' for iterators:

http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/302325

I guess if we wanted a standard solution to the 'unzip' problem, I could 
rally for this to be added to itertools, but I'm not sure I'm up to the 
task of rewriting it in C...

Steve