Split String into List of characters in Python (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 19 Apr, 2025

We are given a string and our task is to split this string into a list of its individual characters, this can happen when we want to analyze or manipulate each character separately. **For example, if we have a string like this: ‘gfg’ then the output will be [‘g’, ‘f’, ‘g’].

Using List

The simplest way to convert a string into a **list of characters in Python is to use the built-in list() function, which directly converts each character in the string to a list element.

Python `

s = "hello" a = list(s) print(a)

`

Output

['h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o']

**Explanation:

Using List Comprehension

List comprehension provides a shorter and clearer syntax compared to the traditional loop approach.

Python `

s = "hello" a = [char for char in s] print(a)

`

Output

['h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o']

**Explanation:

Using Unpacking Operator *

The unpacking operator * can be used to split a string into a list of characters in a single line. This approach is compact and works well for quickly converting a string to a list.

Python `

s = "hello" a = [*s] print(a)

`

Output

['h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o']

**Explanation: [ *s ] unpacks each character in the string **s into a list.

Using a Loop

We can also use a simple loop (for loop) to convert string into list of characters. This method is useful when we want to include additional logic within the loop.

Python `

s = "hello" a = []

for char in s:

a.append(char)

print(a)

`

Output

['h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o']

**Explanation: This code splits the string s = “hello” into a list of characters by iterating through each character and appending it to the list **a.

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