interleaving dictionary values

[Tuomas]

j1o1h1n at gmail.com wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I was trying to create a flattened list of dictionary values where each
> value is a list, and I was hoping to do this in some neat functionally
> style, in some brief, throwaway line so that it would assume the
> insignificance that it deserves in the grand scheme of my program.
> 
> I had in mind something like this:
> 
> 
>>>>interleave([1, 2, 3], [4,5], [7, 8, 9])
> 
> [1, 4, 7, 2, 5, 8, 3, 9]
> 
> I played for a while with zip(), [some newfangled python keyword, that
> I was truly shocked to find has been hiding at the bottom of the list
> built in functions since version 2.0], before giving up and going back
> to trusty old map(), long celebrated for making code hard to read:
> 
> 
>>>>map(None, [1, 2, 3], [4,5], [7, 8, 9])
> 
> [(1, 4, 7), (2, 5, 8), (3, None, 9)]
> 
> This is basically it.  It then becomes:
> 
> 
>>>>filter(None, flatten(map(None, [1, 2, 3], [4,5], [7, 8, 9])))
> 
> [1, 4, 7, 2, 5, 8, 3, 9]
> 
> filter(None, - my brain parses that automatically now.  This is not so
> bad.  Flatten is snitched from ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/363051,
> thank you Jordan Callicoat, Mike C. Fletcher:
> 
> def flatten(l, ltypes=(list, tuple)):
>     i = 0
>     while (i < len(l)):
>        while (isinstance(l[i], ltypes)):
>            l[i:i+1] = list(l[i])
>        i += 1
>     return l
> 
> Trouble is then getting map() to play with the result of dict.values().
>  I only worked this out while writing this post, of course.
> 
> Given a dictionary like d = { "a" : [1, 2, 3], "b" : [4, 5], "c" : [7,
> 8, 9]} - I was hoping to do this:
> 
>   map(None, d.values())
> 
> But instead I (finally worked out I could) do this:
> 
>   apply(map, tuple([None] + d.values()))
> 
> So... my bit of code becomes:
> 
>   filter(None, flatten(map(None, apply(map, tuple([None] +
> d.values())))))
> 
> It fits on one line, but it feels far more evil than I set out to be.
> The brackets at the end are bad for my epilepsy.
> 
> Surely there is there some nice builtin function I have missed?
> 
> --
> | John J. Lehmann, j1o1h1n(@)gmail.com
> + [lost-in-translation] "People using public transport look stern, and
> handbag
> + snatchers increase the ill feeling."  A  Japanese woman, Junko, told
> the paper:
> + "For us, Paris is the dream city. The  French are all beautiful and
> elegant
> + And then, when we arrive..."
> 

What about:
 >>> d = { "a" : [1, 2, 3], "b" : [4, 5], "c" : [7, 8, 9]}
 >>> L=[]
 >>> for x in d.values(): L.extend(x)
...
 >>> L
[1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 4, 5]

or a little curious:
 >>> L=[]
 >>> map(L.extend, d.values())
[None, None, None]
 >>> L
[1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 4, 5]

TV