Is there a method like .replace() for list in python? [duplicate]

Question

i've made a list out of a string using .split() method. For example: string = " I like chicken" i will use .split() to make a list of words in the string ['I','like','chicken'] Now if i want to replace 'chicken' with something else, what method i can use that is like .replace() but for a list?

Answer 1

There’s nothing built-in, but it’s just a loop to do the replacement in-place:

for i, word in enumerate(words):
    if word == 'chicken':
        words[i] = 'broccoli'

or a shorter option if there’s always exactly one instance:

words[words.index('chicken')] = 'broccoli'

or a list comprehension to create a new list:

new_words = ['broccoli' if word == 'chicken' else word for word in words]

any of which can be wrapped up in a function:

def replaced(sequence, old, new):
    return (new if x == old else x for x in sequence)


new_words = list(replaced(words, 'chicken', 'broccoli'))