How to Concatenate Two Lists in Python (with examples)

You can use either of the following templates in order to concatenate two lists in Python:

(1) Using the + operator:

list_one = ['item1','item2','item3',....]
list_two = ['item1','item2','item3',....]

concatenated_list = list_one + list_two
print (concatenated_list)

(2) Using extend:

list_one = ['item1','item2','item3',....]
list_two = ['item1','item2','item3',....]

list_one.extend(list_two)
print (list_one)

In the next section, you’ll see how to apply the above techniques in practice.

Steps to Concatenate Two Lists in Python

Step 1: Create two Lists

To begin with a simple example, let’s create two simple lists that contain string values about fruits:

list_one = ['Banana','Apple','Mango','Watermelon','Pear']
list_two = ['Blueberry','Cherry','Pineapple','Papaya','Coconut']

print (list_one)
print (list_two)

Run the code in Python, and you’ll get these two lists:

Step 2: Concatenate the two Python Lists using the + operator

You can use the + operator in order to concatenate the two lists:

list_one = ['item1','item2','item3',....]
list_two = ['item1','item2','item3',....]

concatenated_list = list_one + list_two
print (concatenated_list)

For our example:

list_one = ['Banana','Apple','Mango','Watermelon','Pear']
list_two = ['Blueberry','Cherry','Pineapple','Papaya','Coconut']

concatenated_list = list_one + list_two
print (concatenated_list)

As you can see, the two lists are now concatenated:

Similarly, you can use the + operator to concatenate two lists that contain integers:

list_one = [1,2,3,4,5]
list_two = [6,7,8,9,10]

concatenated_list = list_one + list_two
print (concatenated_list)

Here is the result:

Using Extend

Alternatively, you can use extend to concatenate the two lists:

list_one = ['item1','item2','item3',....]
list_two = ['item1','item2','item3',....]

list_one.extend(list_two)
print (list_one)

Here is the complete Python code for our example:

list_one = ['Banana','Apple','Mango','Watermelon','Pear']
list_two = ['Blueberry','Cherry','Pineapple','Papaya','Coconut']

list_one.extend(list_two)
print (list_one)

As before, the two lists are now concatenated:

Concatenate More Than Two Lists

You can use the + operator to concatenate multiple lists.

For example, let’s concatenate the following 4 lists:

list_one = ['Banana','Apple','Mango']
list_two = ['Watermelon','Pear']
list_three = ['Blueberry','Cherry']
list_four = ['Pineapple','Papaya','Coconut']

concatenated_list = list_one + list_two + list_three + list_four
print (concatenated_list)

Run the code, and you’ll get the following result:

Finally, you can check the following guide to learn more about creating a list in Python.