How do you concatenate a list in python?

Let’s see how to concatenate two lists using different methods in Python. This operation is useful when we have numbers of lists of elements which needs to be processed in a similar manner.

Method #1 : Using Naive Method

In this method, we traverse the second list and keep appending elements in the first list, so that first list would have all the elements in both lists and hence would perform the append.

test_list1 = [1, 4, 5, 6, 5]

test_list2 = [3, 5, 7, 2, 5]

for i in test_list2 :

    test_list1.append(i)

print ("Concatenated list using naive method : " 

                              + str(test_list1))

Output:

Concatenated list using naive method : [1, 4, 5, 6, 5, 3, 5, 7, 2, 5]

 
Method #2 : Using + operator

The most conventional method to perform the list concatenation, the use of “+” operator can easily add the whole of one list behind the other list and hence perform the concatenation.

test_list3 = [1, 4, 5, 6, 5]

test_list4 = [3, 5, 7, 2, 5]

test_list3 = test_list3 + test_list4

print ("Concatenated list using + : "

                   + str(test_list3))

Output:

Concatenated list using + : [1, 4, 5, 6, 5, 3, 5, 7, 2, 5]

Method #3 : Using list comprehension

List comprehension can also accomplish this task of list concatenation. In this case, a new list is created, but this method is a one liner alternative to the loop method discussed above.

test_list1 = [1, 4, 5, 6, 5]

test_list2 = [3, 5, 7, 2, 5]

res_list = [y for x in [test_list1, test_list2] for y in x]

print ("Concatenated list using list comprehension: "

                                     + str(res_list))

Output:

Concatenated list using list comprehension: [1, 4, 5, 6, 5, 3, 5, 7, 2, 5]

 
Method #4 : Using extend()

extend() is the function extended by lists in Python and hence can be used to perform this task. This function performs the inplace extension of first list.

test_list3 = [1, 4, 5, 6, 5]

test_list4 = [3, 5, 7, 2, 5]

test_list3.extend(test_list4)

print ("Concatenated list using list.extend() : "

                               + str(test_list3))

Output:

Concatenated list using list.extend() : [1, 4, 5, 6, 5, 3, 5, 7, 2, 5]

 
Method #5 : Using * operator

Using * operator, this method is the new addition to list concatenation and works only in Python 3.6+. Any no. of lists can be concatenated and returned in a new list using this operator.

test_list1 = [1, 4, 5, 6, 5]

test_list2 = [3, 5, 7, 2, 5]

res_list = [*test_list1, *test_list2]

print ("Concatenated list using * operator : " 

                              + str(res_list))

Output:

Concatenated list using * operator : [1, 4, 5, 6, 5, 3, 5, 7, 2, 5]

 
Method #6 : Using itertools.chain()

itertools.chain() returns the iterable after chaining its arguments in one and hence does not require to store the concatenated list if only its initial iteration is required. This is useful when concatenated list has to be used just once.

import itertools

test_list1 = [1, 4, 5, 6, 5]

test_list2 = [3, 5, 7, 2, 5]

res_list = list(itertools.chain(test_list1, test_list2))

print ("Concatenated list using itertools.chain() : "

                                      + str(res_list))

Output:

Concatenated list using itertools.chain() : [1, 4, 5, 6, 5, 3, 5, 7, 2, 5]

How do you concatenate all elements in a list?

What are 3 different ways to combine 2 lists in python?

How do I concatenate a list into a string?

What do you mean by concatenation in a list python?