How to iterate over each words in a list

Question

I am new to python. I need to iterate over words one by one from a list. But i can only iterate through each letters in each words vertically.

l = ['abcd efgh ijkl']

for i in l:
    for j in i:
        print(j)

Output:

a
b
c
d
 
e
f
g
h
 
i
j
k
l

Expected output:

abcd
efgh
ijkl

Does this answer your question? [How to iterate over each string in a list of strings and operate on its elements?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20968823/how-to-iterate-over-each-string-in-a-list-of-strings-and-operate-on-its-elements) — l'L'l, Jun 16 '23 at 16:52

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 16 '23 at 16:50

5

Use split() to split the string via spaces.

l = ["abcd efgh ijkl"]

for i in l:
    for j in i.split():
        print(j)

answered Jun 16 '23 at 16:50

Michael Cao

2,278
1
1
13

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 16 '23 at 16:53

You have a single element (the string 'abcd efgh ijkl') in the list, you need to split it:

l = ['abcd efgh ijkl']
for i in l:
    # this will split on whitespace,
    # you can split explicitly on space only split(' ')
    for j in i.split():                     
        print(j)

Szymon Kowaliński · Answer 3 · 2023-06-16T16:57:28.383

0

l = ['abcd efgh ijkl']
for word in l[0].split(" "):
    print(word)

Or for many strings with words:

l = ['abcd efgh ijkl', 'word1 word2', 'word3 word5']
for string in l:
    for word in string.split(" "):
        print(word)

edited Jun 16 '23 at 16:57

answered Jun 16 '23 at 16:51

Szymon Kowaliński

582
3
14

2

`l` is a list, it doesn't have a `split()` method. – Barmar Jun 16 '23 at 16:52
What if `l` has more than one element? – Barmar Jun 16 '23 at 16:53
you're right, Edited answer – Szymon Kowaliński Jun 16 '23 at 16:54

score -3 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 16 '23 at 16:49

-3

You have an additional step in your code, try:

l = ['abcd efgh ijkl']
for i in l:
    print(i)

answered Jun 16 '23 at 16:49

itprorh66

3,110
4
9
21

1

This doesn't split the string into words. It will print all of `abcd efgh ijkl` on a single line. – Barmar Jun 16 '23 at 16:51
Yeah totally missed that important detail – itprorh66 Jun 17 '23 at 15:23

score -3 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 16 '23 at 16:52

-3

Why are you using a second for loop? The words must be within quotes.

l = ['abcd', 'efgh', 'ijkl']

for i in l:
    print(i)

In ipython

In [110]: l = ['abcd', 'efgh', 'ijkl']
     ...:
     ...: for i in l:
     ...:     print(i)
     ...:
abcd
efgh
ijkl

answered Jun 16 '23 at 16:52

UNagaswamy

2,068
3
30
35

You shouldn't change the input. – Barmar Jun 16 '23 at 16:53

How to iterate over each words in a list

Output:

Expected output:

5 Answers5