The Magic zip() in Python

Zipping Two Lists

You can use zip() to combine two lists element-wise into pairs.

list1 = [1, 2, 3]
list2 = ['a', 'b', 'c']

zipped = zip(list1, list2)
print(list(zipped))  # [(1, 'a'), (2, 'b'), (3, 'c')]

Unzipping a Zipped Object

You can "unzip" using zip(*zipped_object) to separate a zipped list back into individual lists.

zipped = [(1, 'a'), (2, 'b'), (3, 'c')]
list1, list2 = zip(*zipped)
print(list1)  # (1, 2, 3)
print(list2)  # ('a', 'b', 'c')

Iterating Over Multiple Lists

You can use zip() to loop over multiple lists simultaneously.

names = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Charlie']
scores = [85, 90, 78]

for name, score in zip(names, scores):
    print(f"{name}: {score}")
# Output:
# Alice: 85
# Bob: 90
# Charlie: 78

Using zip() with Different Lengths

If the lists have different lengths, zip() stops when the shortest list is exhausted.

list1 = [1, 2, 3, 4]
list2 = ['a', 'b', 'c']

zipped = zip(list1, list2)
print(list(zipped))  # [(1, 'a'), (2, 'b'), (3, 'c')]

Zipping More Than Two Lists

You can zip together more than two lists at once.

a = [1, 2, 3]
b = ['x', 'y', 'z']
c = [0.1, 0.2, 0.3]

zipped = zip(a, b, c)
print(list(zipped))  # [(1, 'x', 0.1), (2, 'y', 0.2), (3, 'z', 0.3)]

Creating Dictionaries with zip()

You can create a dictionary by zipping two lists, one as keys and the other as values.

keys = ['name', 'age', 'city']
values = ['Alice', 25, 'New York']

dictionary = dict(zip(keys, values))
print(dictionary)  # {'name': 'Alice', 'age': 25, 'city': 'New York'}

The zip() function is versatile for combining and handling multiple iterables efficiently.