Convert a list to a string in Python

The Problem

How can I convert a list to a string in Python?

The Solution

We can do this using Python’s str.join() method. This method takes an iterable, such as a list, and returns a new string containing the iterable’s elements, concatenated with the original string as a separator. Consider the following examples:

fullname = " ".join(["John","Smith"])
print(fullname)  # will output "John Smith"

firstname = "".join(["J","o","h","n"])
print(firstname)  # will output "John"

fullname_alt = ", ".join(["Smith","John"])
print(fullname_alt)  # will output "Smith, John"

If the list contains any non-string items, this method will raise a TypeError, so we may need to cast items to strings before using it. We can do this with a list comprehension:

my_numbers = [13, 7, 42]
my_string = " ".join([str(number) for number in my_numbers])

print(my_string) # will output "13 7 42"