Print lists in Python (6 Different Ways)

Printing a list in python can be done is following ways:

• Using for loop : Traverse from 0 to len(list) and print all elements of the list one by one using a for loop, this is the standard practice of doing it. 

Python

# Python program to print list
# using for loop
a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

# printing the list using loop
for x in range(len(a)):
    print a[x],

Output

1 2 3 4 5

Time Complexity: O(n), where n is length of a list.

Auxiliary Space: O(n), where n is length of a list.

• Without using loops: * symbol is use to print the list elements in a single line with space. To print all elements in new lines or separated by comma use sep=”\n” or sep=”, ” respectively. 

Python

# Python program to print list
# without using loop

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

# printing the list using * operator separated
# by comma
print(*a)

# printing the list using * and sep operator
print("printing lists separated by commas")

print(*a, sep = ", ")

# print in new line
print("printing lists in new line")

print(*a, sep = "\n")

Output

1 2 3 4 5
printing lists separated by commas
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
printing lists in new line
1
2
3
4
5

• Convert a list to a string for display : If it is a list of strings we can simply join them using join() function, but if the list contains integers then convert it into string and then use join() function to join them to a string and print the string. 

Python

# Python program to print list
# by Converting a list to a
# string for display
a =["Geeks", "for", "Geeks"]

# print the list using join function()
print(' '.join(a))

# print the list by converting a list of
# integers to string
a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

print str(a)[1:-1]

Output

Geeks for Geeks
1, 2, 3, 4, 5

• Using map : Use map() to convert each item in the list to a string if list is not a string, and then join them: 

Python

# Python program to print list
# print the list by converting a list of
# integers to string using map

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
print(' '.join(map(str, a)))

print"in new line"
print('\n'.join(map(str, a)))

Output

1 2 3 4 5
in new line
1
2
3
4
5

• Using list comprehension : Use list comprehension to go one by one to each element in list and print. 

Python3

# Python program to print list
# print the list by using list comprehension

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
[print(i, end=' ') for i in a]

print("\nIn new line")
[print(i) for i in a]

Output

1 2 3 4 5 
In new line
1
2
3
4
5

• Indexing and slicing: We can print the list within a range or a complete list.

Python3

l = [1,2,3,4,5,6]

#method 1
print(l[:])

#method 2
print(l[0:])

#method 3
print(l[0:len(l)])

Output

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Note: If we don’t mention any index in slicing, it assumes as 0 if we don’t mention the starting range 
(method 1 and method 2 are the examples) and if we don’t mention the ending range it assumes as the index of the last element (method 2 is the example). We can use slice function also.

To know more about slicing in python, click here.

Time Complexity: O(n) 
Auxiliary Space: O(n)