map#
Function map
applies function to each element of sequence and returns iterator with result.
For example, map
can be used to perform element transformations. Convert all strings to uppercase:
In [1]: list_of_words = ['one', 'two', 'list', '', 'dict']
In [2]: map(str.upper, list_of_words)
Out[2]: <map at 0xb45eb7ec>
In [3]: list(map(str.upper, list_of_words))
Out[3]: ['ONE', 'TWO', 'LIST', '', 'DICT']
Converting to numbers:
In [3]: list_of_str = ['1', '2', '5', '10']
In [4]: list(map(int, list_of_str))
Out[4]: [1, 2, 5, 10]
With map
it is convenient to use lambda expressions:
In [5]: vlans = [100, 110, 150, 200, 201, 202]
In [6]: list(map(lambda x: 'vlan {}'.format(x), vlans))
Out[6]: ['vlan 100', 'vlan 110', 'vlan 150', 'vlan 200', 'vlan 201', 'vlan 202']
If map
function expects two arguments, two lists are passed:
In [7]: nums = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
In [8]: nums2 = [100, 200, 300, 400, 500]
In [9]: list(map(lambda x, y: x*y, nums, nums2))
Out[9]: [100, 400, 900, 1600, 2500]
List comprehension instead of map#
As a rule, you can use list comprehension instead of map
.
The list comprehension option is often clearer, and in some cases even faster.
But map
can be more effective when you have to generate a large
number of elements because map
is an iterator and list comprehension generates a list.
Examples similar to those above in list comprehension version.
Convert all strings to uppercase:
In [48]: list_of_words = ['one', 'two', 'list', '', 'dict']
In [49]: [str.upper(word) for word in list_of_words]
Out[49]: ['ONE', 'TWO', 'LIST', '', 'DICT']
Converting to numbers:
In [50]: list_of_str = ['1', '2', '5', '10']
In [51]: [int(i) for i in list_of_str]
Out[51]: [1, 2, 5, 10]
String formatting:
In [52]: vlans = [100, 110, 150, 200, 201, 202]
In [53]: ['vlan {}'.format(x) for x in vlans]
Out[53]: ['vlan 100', 'vlan 110', 'vlan 150', 'vlan 200', 'vlan 201', 'vlan 202']
Use zip
to get pairs of elements:
In [54]: nums = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
In [55]: nums2 = [100, 200, 300, 400, 500]
In [56]: [x * y for x, y in zip(nums, nums2)]
Out[56]: [100, 400, 900, 1600, 2500]