Python | Program to convert String to a List

In this program, we will try to convert a given string to a list, where spaces or any other special characters, according to the user’s choice, are encountered. To do this we use the split() method in string.

Examples:

Input : "Geeks for Geeks"
Output : ['Geeks', 'for', 'Geeks']
Explaination:Here we have a string in the input which we converted into list of words.

String to List Conversion in Python

Below are the methods that we will cover in this article:

• Using list()
• Using list comprehension 
• Using split() method
• Using string slicing
• Using re.findall() method
• Using enumerate function 
• Using JSON
• Using ast.literal

Python String to List of Characters using list() method

The list is the built-in datatype in Python. it is generally used to store the item or the collection of items in it and we can use it to convert the string to a list.

Python3

s = "Geeks for"
x = list(s)
print(x)

Output:

['G', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's', ' ', 'f', 'o', 'r']

Python String to List of Characters using List Comprehension 

Here we can also use list comprehension in which we iterate over the string and store it in the list

Python3

s="Geeks"
x=[i for i in s]
print(x)

Output

['G', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's']

Python Convert String to List using split() method

The split method is used to split the strings and store them in the list. The built-in method returns a list of the words in the string, using the “delimiter” as the delimiter string. If a delimiter is not specified or is None, a different splitting algorithm is applied: runs of consecutive whitespace are regarded as a single separator, and the result will contain no empty strings at the start or end if the string has leading or trailing whitespace.

Example 1

Python3

# Python code to convert string to list


def Convert(string):
    li = list(string.split(" "))
    return li


# Driver code
str1 = "Geeks for Geeks"
print(Convert(str1))

Output

['Geeks', 'for', 'Geeks']

Example 2

Python3

def Convert(string):
    li = list(string.split("-"))
    return li


# Driver code
str1 = "Geeks-for-Geeks"
print(Convert(str1))

Output

['Geeks', 'for', 'Geeks']

Python Convert String to List using String Slicing

In Python, we have Slicing with which we can slice any iterable data according to our needs and use it as required

Python3

def Convert(string):
    list1 = []
    list1[:0] = string
    return list1


# Driver code
str1 = "ABCD"
print(Convert(str1))

Output

['A', 'B', 'C', 'D']

Python Convert String to List using re.findall() method 

This task can be performed using regular expression. We can use the pattern to match all the alphabet and make a list with all the matched elements. 

Python3

import re

# Function which uses re.findall method to convert string to list character wise
def Convert(string):
    return re.findall('[a-zA-Z]', string)

# Driver code
str1="ABCD"
print("List of character is : ",Convert(str1))

Output

List of character is :  ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D']

Python Convert String to List using enumerate function 

Python has an inbuilt method enumerate which can use to convert a string to a list

Python3

s="geeks"
x=[i for a,i in enumerate(s) ]
print(x)

Output

['g', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's']

Python Convert String to List using JSON

The json module in Python provides functions for working with JSON data. It also has loads method which can

Python3

import json

stringA = '["geeks", 2,"for", 4, "geeks",3]'

# Type check

res = json.loads(stringA)
# Result
print("The converted list : \n",res)

Output

The converted list : 
 ['geeks', 2, 'for', 4, 'geeks', 3]

Python Convert String to List using ast.literal

In Python, we have ast module which has a method of litera_eval through which we can also do the conversion

Python3

import ast

# initializing string representation of a list
ini_list = '["geeks", 2,"for", 4, "geeks",3]'


# Converting string to list
res = ast.literal_eval(ini_list)

# printing final result and its type
print(res)
print(type(res))

Output

['geeks', 2, 'for', 4, 'geeks', 3]
<class 'list'>