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pythonpython-3.xstringjoinseparator

Creating a string with separators from a list of numbers using Python3

I have a list of numbers:

list1 = [1, 2, 3, 4]

I would like to create a string as follows:

Contains([saleID],"1") OR
Contains([saleID],"2") OR
Contains([saleID],"3") OR
Contains([saleID],"4")

I tried the following code:

print('Contains([saleID],"'.join(str(x) for x in list1).join('" OR'))

But I get the following output:

"1Contains([saleID],"2Contains([saleID],"3Contains([saleID],"4 1Contains([saleID],"2Contains([saleID],"3Contains([saleID],"4O1Contains([saleID],"2Contains([saleID],"3Contains([saleID],"4R

Please advise

Solution

  • x.join(lst) joins the elements of lst using x as a separator. Knowing this, you want to use x = ' OR\n' because that's what is repeated. The elements of lst can contain the rest of each line, i.e. 'Contains([saleID],"{num}")'

    There are two parts to this operation:

    1. Format the number into the string 'Contains([saleID],"{num}")', which gives a list containing four strings as shown below:
    >>> lst = [f'Contains([saleID],"{num}")' for num in list1]
['Contains([saleID],"1")',
 'Contains([saleID],"2")',
 'Contains([saleID],"3")',
 'Contains([saleID],"4")']

    And,

    1. Join all the formatted strings in this list with ' OR\n'
    >>> result = ' OR\n'.join(lst)
'Contains([saleID],"1") OR\nContains([saleID],"2") OR\nContains([saleID],"3") OR\nContains([saleID],"4")'

    Print result to see that we have the desired value:

    Contains([saleID],"1") OR
Contains([saleID],"2") OR
Contains([saleID],"3") OR
Contains([saleID],"4")

    Of course, you can do this all in a single line with:

    >>> result = ' OR\n'.join(f'Contains([saleID],"{num}")' for num in list1)