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 lists that contain string values:
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:
['Banana', 'Apple', 'Mango', 'Watermelon', 'Pear']
['Blueberry', 'Cherry', 'Pineapple', 'Papaya', 'Coconut']
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:
['Banana', 'Apple', 'Mango', 'Watermelon', 'Pear', 'Blueberry', 'Cherry', 'Pineapple', 'Papaya', 'Coconut']
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:
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
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)
Result:
['Banana', 'Apple', 'Mango', 'Watermelon', 'Pear', 'Blueberry', 'Cherry', 'Pineapple', 'Papaya', 'Coconut']
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:
['Banana', 'Apple', 'Mango', 'Watermelon', 'Pear', 'Blueberry', 'Cherry', 'Pineapple', 'Papaya', 'Coconut']
Finally, you can check the following guide to learn more about creating a list in Python.