Print a List Without Brackets in Python

If you have attempted to print a list in Python, you might have noticed that the output includes square brackets around the list elements by default.

However, there are different approaches we can use to print the list without these brackets. Let’s explore these methods:

Using the unpacking operator (*) with the print() function

This is the easiest way to print a list without brackets in Python. In this method, we use the unpacking operator (*) before the list variable to unpack the elements of the list.

This means that instead of passing the entire list as a single argument to the print() function, it expands the list into individual elements and provides them as separate arguments.

For example:

my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4]

print(*my_list)  # Output: 1 2 3 4

By default, the print() function separates the arguments with a space. However, we can specify a different separator by passing it as the sep argument to the print() function.

Here’s an example:

my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4]

print(*my_list, sep=", ")  # Output: 1, 2, 3, 4

In the above example, we use a comma followed by a space as the separator.

Using the join() method

The join() method concatenates the elements of an iterable (such as a list, tuple, or string) into a single string using a specified separator.

The syntax for the join() method is as follows:

separator_string.join(iterable)

Here is an example:

my_list = ["apple", "banana", "mango"]

print(", ".join(my_list))  # Output: apple, banana, mango

In the above example, I used a comma followed by a space as a separator. However, you can use any character or sequence of characters of your liking as a separator.

The join() method only works if all the elements of the list are strings. If the list contains non-string elements (such as integers or floats), we will need to convert them to strings before calling the join() method. We can do this using a list comprehension or a map function.

Let’s see an example:

my_list = ["apple", "iPhone", 14]

# Using map() function
print(", ".join(map(str, my_list)))  # Output: apple, iPhone, 14

# Using list comprehension
print(", ".join([str(x) for x in my_list]))  # Output: apple, iPhone, 14

Using a for loop 

In this method, we iterate over each element of the list and print them individually, separated by a desired separator.

For example:

my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4]

for x in my_list:
    print(x, end=" ")  # Output: 1 2 3 4

However, there is a drawback to this approach. This approach results in an extra separator at the end of the printed output. In the above example, the output ends with a space after the last element.

When the separator is a space, the presence of an extra space at the end is not very noticeable. However, this issue becomes more apparent when a comma is used as a separator.