zip

zip(*iterables)

The real name of zip is transpose.

If you try to choose certain indices of each element in iterables and group them together, you need zip. It is transpose operation.

Thinking arguments of zip as a matrix, each argument is a row. Then [0, 1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8, 9] looks like

[0, 1, 2, 3, 4],
[5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

zip will transpose it to:

[0, 5],
[1, 6],
[2, 7],
[3, 8],
[4, 9]

Example

>>> list(zip([0, 1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8, 9]))
[(0, 5), (1, 6), (2, 7), (3, 8), (4, 9)]

Example: inversive

Transpose is inversive which means \(({A^T})^T = A\). Here is an example showing this feather of zip:

>>> res = list(zip(*(zip([0, 1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8, 9]))))
>>> list(res)
[(0, 1, 2, 3, 4), (5, 6, 7, 8, 9)]

Note