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.

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

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

['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

# 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))

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

Example 2

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

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


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

['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. 

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))

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

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

['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

import json

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

# Type check

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

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

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))

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

Python | Program to convert String to a List – FAQs

How to convert a sentence into a list of words in Python?

You can use the split() method to split a sentence into a list of words based on whitespace:

sentence = "Hello world how are you"
word_list = sentence.split()
print(word_list)

Output:

['Hello', 'world', 'how', 'are', 'you']

How to convert list of strings to list of words in Python?

If you have a list of strings and want to combine them into a single list of words:

string_list = ["Hello", "world", "how", "are", "you"]
word_list = [word for string in string_list for word in string.split()]
print(word_list)

Output:

['Hello', 'world', 'how', 'are', 'you']

How to convert string to list using map in Python?

You can use the map() function along with split() to convert a string into a list of words:

string = "Hello world how are you"
word_list = list(map(str, string.split()))
print(word_list)

Output:

['Hello', 'world', 'how', 'are', 'you']

How to convert string into list in Python without split?

If you want to convert a string into a list of characters without using split():

string = "Hello"
char_list = list(string)
print(char_list)

Output:

['H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o']

How do I convert a string to a list without spaces in Python?

To convert a string into a list of words or phrases without spaces, you can use regular expressions (re.split()) to split based on non-alphanumeric characters:

import re
string = "Hello,world!how-are?you"
word_list = re.split(r'\W+', string)
print(word_list)

Output:

['Hello', 'world', 'how', 'are', 'you']

This splits the string string into a list of words based on non-alphanumeric characters (\W+), effectively removing spaces and punctuation from consideration.