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pythonlisttuplesswap

Swap values in a tuple/list inside a list in python?


I have a list of tuples like this:

[('foo','bar'),('foo1','bar1'),('foofoo','barbar')]

What is the fastest way in python (running on a very low cpu/ram machine) to swap values like this...

[('bar','foo'),('bar1','foo1'),('barbar','foofoo')]

I am currently using:

for x in mylist:
    self.my_new_list.append(((x[1]),(x[0])))

Is there a better or faster way???


Solution

  • You could use map:

    map (lambda t: (t[1], t[0]), mylist)
    

    Or list comprehension:

    [(t[1], t[0]) for t in mylist]
    

    List comprehensions are preferred and supposedly much faster than map when lambda is needed, however note that list comprehension has a strict evaluation, that is it will be evaluated as soon as it gets bound to variable, if you're worried about memory consumption use a generator instead:

    g = ((t[1], t[0]) for t in mylist)
    #call when you need a value
    g.next()
    

    There are some more details here: Python List Comprehension Vs. Map