Merging Two Lists in Python
When working with lists in Python, you may often come across the need to merge two lists together. Merging two lists means combining the elements of both lists into a single list. Python provides a simple syntax to achieve this.
The syntax to merge two lists in Python is as follows:
merged_list = list1 + list2
In the above syntax, list1 and list2 are the two lists that you want to merge. The + operator is used to concatenate the two lists together, and the result is stored in the merged_list variable.
It’s important to note that the original lists list1 and list2 remain unchanged. The merged_list is a new list that contains all the elements from both lists.
Sorting a List in Python
Sorting a list in Python is a common operation that allows you to arrange the elements of a list in a specific order. Python provides a built-in function called sort() to sort a list in ascending order.
The syntax to sort a list in Python is as follows:
list.sort()
In the above syntax, list is the list that you want to sort. The sort() function sorts the elements of the list in ascending order, modifying the original list in place.
If you want to sort the list in descending order, you can pass the argument reverse=True to the sort() function:
list.sort(reverse=True)
This will sort the list in descending order, with the largest elements appearing first.
Merging and Sorting Two Lists in Python
Now that we know how to merge two lists and how to sort a list in Python, we can combine these two operations to merge and sort two lists together.
The process involves merging the two lists using the + operator, and then sorting the merged list using the sort() function.
The syntax to merge and sort two lists in Python is as follows:
merged_list = sorted(list1 + list2)
In the above syntax, list1 and list2 are the two lists that you want to merge and sort. The + operator is used to merge the two lists together, and the sorted() function is used to sort the merged list in ascending order. The result is stored in the merged_list variable.
It’s important to note that the original lists list1 and list2 remain unchanged. The merged_list is a new list that contains all the elements from both lists, merged and sorted.
Examples of Merging and Sorting Two Lists in Python
Let’s look at some examples to better understand how to merge and sort two lists in Python.
Example 1:
list1 = [3, 1, 4]
list2 = [2, 5, 6]
merged_list = sorted(list1 + list2)
print(merged_list)
The output of the above code will be:
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
In this example, we have two lists list1 and list2. We merge the two lists using the + operator, and then sort the merged list using the sorted() function. The resulting merged_list is [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].
Example 2:
list1 = ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry']
list2 = ['date', 'elderberry', 'fig']
merged_list = sorted(list1 + list2)
print(merged_list)
The output of the above code will be:
['apple', 'banana', 'cherry', 'date', 'elderberry', 'fig']
In this example, we have two lists list1 and list2 containing strings. We merge the two lists using the + operator, and then sort the merged list using the sorted() function. The resulting merged_list is [‘apple’, ‘banana’, ‘cherry’, ‘date’, ‘elderberry’, ‘fig’].
Example 3:
list1 = [9, 7, 5]
list2 = [6, 8, 10]
merged_list = sorted(list1 + list2, reverse=True)
print(merged_list)
The output of the above code will be:
[10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5]
In this example, we have two lists list1 and list2. We merge the two lists using the + operator, and then sort the merged list in descending order using the sorted() function with the reverse=True argument. The resulting merged_list is [10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5].
In conclusion, merging and sorting two lists in Python is a straightforward process. By using the + operator to merge the lists and the sorted() function to sort the merged list, you can easily combine and arrange the elements of two lists in a desired order.
