[Python-Dev] Suggestion for a new built-in - flatten

[Michael Foord]

Hello all,

I have a suggestion for a new Python built in function: 'flatten'.

This would (as if it needs explanation) take a single sequence, where 
each element can be a sequence (or iterable ?) nested to an arbitrary 
depth. It would return a flattened list. A useful restriction could be 
that it wouldn't expand strings :-)

I've needed this several times, and recently twice at work. There are 
several implementations in the Python cookbook. When I posted on my blog 
recently asking for one liners to flatten a list of lists (only 1 level 
of nesting), I had 26 responses, several of them saying it was a problem 
they had encountered before.

There are also numerous  places on the web bewailing the lack of this as 
a built-in. All of this points to the fact that it is something that 
would be appreciated as a built in.

There is an implementation already in Tkinter :

    import _tkinter._flatten as flatten

There are several different possible approaches in pure Python, but is 
this an idea that has legs ?

All the best,


Michael Foord
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/index.shtml


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