Better Python Lists

Makes lists in Python better, by adding some useful methods.

• List.compact() - removes all None values from the List.
• List.flatten() - flattens an arbitrarily nested List.

Installation

pip install better-python-lists

Basic Usage

List([1, None, 2, 3, 4, None, None, 5]).compact()
# => List[(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)]

List([["a"], "b", 5, [6, 7, [8, 9, [10]]]]).flatten()
# => List(["a", "b", 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10])

Details

Compact

The compact method is inspired by Ruby's Array.compact. It removes all None elements from the List, returning a copy of the List.

from better_python_lists import List

my_list = List([1, None, 2, 3, 4, None, None, 5])
compact_list = my_list.compact()
print(compact_list) # => [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

You can also perform in-place compacting using the compacted method:

print(my_list)  # => [1, None, 2, 3, 4, None, None, 5]
my_list.compacted()
print(my_list)  # => [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

If you want to filter out more than just None, you can pass in an optional filter list:

another_list = List([1, "None", 2, None, 3, "N/A"])
another_list.compacted(filter_list=[None, "None", "N/A"])
print(another_list)  # => [1, 2, 3]

Flatten

The methods flatten and flattened flatten an arbitrarily nested List into a single-level one.

nested_list: List = List([["a"], "b", 5, [6, 7, [8, 9, [10]]]])
flat_list = nested_list.flatten()
print(flat_list) # => ["a", "b", 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

As with compact/compacted, flatten creates a copy of the List, and flattened performs in-place replacement.