Split list into multiple lists with fixed number of elements

Question

How to split a List of elements into lists with at most N items?

ex: Given a list with 7 elements, create groups of 4, leaving the last group possibly with less elements.

split(List(1,2,3,4,5,6,"seven"),4)

=> List(List(1,2,3,4), List(5,6,"seven"))

Answer 1

I think you're looking for grouped. It returns an iterator, but you can convert the result to a list,

scala> List(1,2,3,4,5,6,"seven").grouped(4).toList
res0: List[List[Any]] = List(List(1, 2, 3, 4), List(5, 6, seven))

Answer 2

There is much easier way to do the task using sliding method. It works this way:

val numbers = List(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ,7)

Lets say you want to break the list into smaller lists of size 3.

numbers.sliding(3, 3).toList

will give you

List(List(1, 2, 3), List(4, 5, 6), List(7))

Answer 3

Or if you want to make your own:

def split[A](xs: List[A], n: Int): List[List[A]] = {
  if (xs.size <= n) xs :: Nil
  else (xs take n) :: split(xs drop n, n)
}

Use:

scala> split(List(1,2,3,4,5,6,"seven"), 4)
res15: List[List[Any]] = List(List(1, 2, 3, 4), List(5, 6, seven))

edit: upon reviewing this 2 years later, I wouldn't recommend this implementation since size is O(n), and hence this method is O(n^2), which would explain why the built-in method becomes faster for large lists, as noted in comments below. You could implement efficiently as follows:

def split[A](xs: List[A], n: Int): List[List[A]] =
  if (xs.isEmpty) Nil 
  else (xs take n) :: split(xs drop n, n)

or even (slightly) more efficiently using splitAt:

def split[A](xs: List[A], n: Int): List[List[A]] =
  if (xs.isEmpty) Nil 
  else {
    val (ys, zs) = xs.splitAt(n)   
    ys :: split(zs, n)
  }

Answer 4

I am adding a tail recursive version of the split method since there was some discussion of tail-recursion versus recursion. I have used the tailrec annotation to force the compiler to complain in case the implementation is not indeed tail-recusive. Tail-recursion I believe turns into a loop under the hood and thus will not cause problems even for a large list as the stack will not grow indefinitely.

import scala.annotation.tailrec


object ListSplitter {

  def split[A](xs: List[A], n: Int): List[List[A]] = {
    @tailrec
    def splitInner[A](res: List[List[A]], lst: List[A], n: Int) : List[List[A]] = {
      if(lst.isEmpty) res
      else {
        val headList: List[A] = lst.take(n)
        val tailList : List[A]= lst.drop(n)
        splitInner(headList :: res, tailList, n)
      }
    }

    splitInner(Nil, xs, n).reverse
  }

}

object ListSplitterTest extends App {
  val res = ListSplitter.split(List(1,2,3,4,5,6,7), 2)
  println(res)
}

Answer 5

I think this is the implementation using splitAt instead of take/drop

def split [X] (n:Int, xs:List[X]) : List[List[X]] =
    if (xs.size <= n) xs :: Nil
    else   (xs.splitAt(n)._1) :: split(n,xs.splitAt(n)._2)