Python Insert List in Another List

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How to insert or add a list in another list in Python? We are often required to insert a list into a list to create a nested list. Python provides an append() method where you can add a list as an element to another list. In case you wanted to add elements from one list to another list, you can either use the extend() or insert() with for loop.

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1. Quick Examples of Add List Into Another List

If you are in a hurry, below are some quick examples of adding a list to another list.


# Quick examples of add list into another list

# Example 1: Insert list into another list
languages1.append(languages2)

# Example 2: Insert multiple lists into another list
languages1.append([languages2,languages3])

# Example 3: Insert list elements to list
languages1.extend(languages2)

# Example 4: Insert List Elements using insert()
for x in languages2:
    languages1.insert(len(languages1),x)

2. Insert List as an Element into Another List

To insert the whole python list as an element into another list, you can use the append() from the list. This takes either string, number, or iterable as an argument and inserts it at the end of the list.


# Consider two lists
languages1=['Python','PHP','Java',]
languages2=['C','C++','C#']
print("Language List 1: ",languages1)
print("Language List 2: ",languages2)

# Insert list into another list
languages1.append(languages2)
print("Result: ",languages1)

Yields below output.

python list insert another list

Similarly, you can also add multiple lists to another list.


# Consider three lists
languages1=['Python','PHP','Java',]
languages2=['C','C++','C#']
languages3=["Scala","Ruby"]

print("Language List 1: ",languages1)
print("Language List 2: ",languages2)
print("Language List 3: ",languages3)

# Insert multiple lists into another list
languages1.append([languages2,languages3])
print("Result: ",languages1)

Yields below output.


# Output:
Language List 1:  ['Python', 'PHP', 'Java']
Language List 2:  ['C', 'C++', 'C#']
Language List 3:  ['Scala', 'Ruby']
Result:  ['Python', 'PHP', 'Java', [['C', 'C++', 'C#'], ['Scala', 'Ruby']]]

3. Insert List Elements to Another List

If you wanted to insert or add individual elements from one list to another list you can use the extend(). This method takes the list as an argument and extends the list to separate elements and adds to the list.


# Consider two lists
languages1=['Python','PHP','Java',]
languages2=['C','C++','C#']
print("Language List 1: ",languages1)
print("Language List 2: ",languages2)

# Insert List Elements into Another List
languages1.extend(languages2)
print("Result: ",languages1)

Yields below output.


# Output:
Language List 1:  ['Python', 'PHP', 'Java']
Language List 2:  ['C', 'C++', 'C#']
Result:  ['Python', 'PHP', 'Java', 'C', 'C++', 'C#']

Similarly, you can also get this output by using + operator * unpack and many more. Refer to append multiple elements to the list.

4. Using Looping with insert()

Finally, you can also achieve this by using the insert() with for loop. insert() is used to insert a single element at a time at a specific position. Here, we will loop through the languages2 list and each element is added to the languages1 at the end. len(languages2) returns the count of the list which is used to specify the end position.


# Consider two lists
languages1=['Python','PHP','Java',]
languages2=['C','C++','C#']
print("Language List 1: ",languages1)
print("Language List 2: ",languages2)

# Insert List Elements using insert()
for x in languages2:
    languages1.insert(len(languages1),x)
print("Result: ",languages1)

This yields the same output as above.

Frequently Asked Questions on Python Insert List in Another List

How do I insert one list into another list in Python?

To insert one list into another list in Python, you can use the extend() method or the += operator. Both of these methods will modify the original list.

Can I append a list as an element to another list in Python?

You can append a list as an element to another list in Python using the append method. For example, list2 is appended as a single element to the end of list1. The resulting list (list1) contains list2 as one of its elements.

What is the difference between append and extend when adding elements from one list to another?

The append method adds the entire list as a single element to the end of another list, while the extend method adds individual elements from one list to the end of another.

Can I use the insert() method to insert a list into another list in Python?

The insert() method is used to insert a single element at a specific index, not to insert a whole list. You can use slicing or the extend() method for this purpose.

Is there a way to concatenate two lists without modifying any of them?

You can concatenate two lists without modifying any of them by using the + operator to create a new list that contains the elements of both lists.

Is there a method to insert individual elements from one list into another using a loop?

You can insert individual elements from one list into another using a loop and the insert method. For example, each element from list2 is inserted into list1 at a specific position determined by the index_to_insert variable. The loop iterates over each element in list2, inserts it into list1, and updates the index for the next insertion.

Conclusion

In this article, you have learned how to insert or add the whole list as an item or element to another list using append() and also learned adding elements from one list to another using extend() and other approaches.

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