Python Zip function- How to combine multiple iterable sequences?

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With the zip() function you can create a new iterable sequence in which each element at an index will be the union of elements at the same index in each sequence.

How to use the zip function?

• The zip function takes zero or more iterable objects and returns an iterable list of tuples. Each tuple has one element from each object passed-in function.
• If no argument is passed, returns an empty list with zero tuples.
• If a single object is passed, the function converts, the object to the list of tuples. Where each element is a tuple with a single element.
  

Syntax ->

zip(* iterables) or zip(iterable1, iterable2, ...iterableN);

Arguments – Can be one or more build-in iterables (string, list, etc.) or they could be user-defined.
Return Value – Return a list of tuples.

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How to use the zip function in a Python program?

This is the basic example, where two lists of the same size will combine.

# Program to combine two lists 
list_1 = [100,200];
list_2 = ["century", "double century"];

outcome = zip(list_1,list_2);

print(list(outcome));

Output->

[(100, 'century'), (200, 'double century')]

Multiple lists of different sizes –

In this example, we are passing three lists of different sizes. The output will be a list with the number of items equal to the size of the smallest iterable passed in arguments.

# Program to combine three lists of different sizes
list_1 = [100,200, 0];
list_2 = ["century", "double century", "no runs"];

list_3 = ["Player1", "Player2", "Player3", "Player4"];

outcome = zip(list_1,list_2,list_3);

print(list(outcome));

Output->

[(100, 'century', 'Player1'), (200, 'double century', 'Player2'), (0, 'no runs', 'Player3')]

How to get iterable sequences back from a zipped Object?

The process is unzipping a zipped object. For that zip() function is used with the * operator along with a zipped object. Please note that, if the zip is created from sequences of different sizes then the unzip will not produce the original sequences. It will be a lossy unzip.

# Program to zip three lists of same sizes
list_1 = [100,200, 0];
list_2 = ["century", "double century", "no runs"];

list_3 = ["Player1", "Player2", "Player3"];
#zip 
outcome = zip(list_1,list_2,list_3);
#unzip 
x,y,z = zip(*outcome);

print(x);
print(y);
print(z);

Output->

(100, 200, 0)
('century', 'double century', 'no runs')
('Player1', 'Player2', 'Player3')

# Program to zip three lists of different sizes
list_1 = [100,200, 0];
list_2 = ["century", "double century", "no runs"];

list_3 = ["Player1", "Player2", "Player3", "Player4"];
#zip 
outcome = zip(list_1,list_2,list_3);
#unzip 
x,y,z = zip(*outcome);

print(x);
print(y);
print(z);

Output->

(100, 200, 0)
('century', 'double century', 'no runs')
('Player1', 'Player2', 'Player3')

When to use zip?

There can be multiple scenarios to use the zip inbuilt function. Whenever you need to create a tuple as an element you can use zip. We can use the zip function to create a dictionary from the lists of keys and values. Or you can use it in for loop to iterate multiple sequences.