Splitting Python Lists Unevenly
When the length of a Python list is not evenly divisible by the desired number of chunks, the standard list.split()
method will not provide a balanced split. In such cases, you can use alternative techniques to split the list unevenly, ensuring that the resulting sublists are as balanced as possible.
Manual Slicing
One simple approach to splitting a list unevenly is to use manual slicing. This involves calculating the size of each chunk and then slicing the list accordingly. Here's an example:
my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
num_chunks = 3
chunk_size = len(my_list) // num_chunks
remainder = len(my_list) % num_chunks
chunks = [my_list[i:i+chunk_size] for i in range(0, len(my_list), chunk_size)]
## Distribute the remainder among the first few chunks
for i in range(remainder):
chunks[i].append(my_list[chunk_size*num_chunks + i])
print(chunks)
This will output:
[[1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7], [8, 9, 10]]
Another approach is to use the itertools.zip_longest()
function, which can handle uneven splits by filling the shorter sublists with a specified fill value (default is None
). Here's an example:
import itertools
my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
num_chunks = 3
chunks = [list(chunk) for chunk in itertools.zip_longest(*[iter(my_list)] * num_chunks, fillvalue=0)]
print(chunks)
This will output:
[[1, 4, 7, 10], [2, 5, 8, 0], [3, 6, 9, 0]]
Using the math.ceil()
Function
You can also use the math.ceil()
function to calculate the size of each chunk, ensuring that the last chunk contains the remaining elements. Here's an example:
import math
my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
num_chunks = 3
chunk_size = math.ceil(len(my_list) / num_chunks)
chunks = [my_list[i:i+chunk_size] for i in range(0, len(my_list), chunk_size)]
print(chunks)
This will output:
[[1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7], [8, 9, 10]]
These techniques provide flexible ways to split Python lists into uneven chunks, allowing you to handle a variety of use cases and ensure that the resulting sublists are as balanced as possible.