Python program to split a list into two lists with alternating elements

Question

Can you make it more simple/elegant?

def zigzag(seq):
    \"\"\"Return two sequences with alternating elements from `seq`\"\"\"
    x, y = [], []
    p, q =          


        

Answer 1

I just wanted to clear something. Say you have a list

list1 = list(range(200))

you can do either :

## OPTION A ##
a = list1[1::2]
b = list1[0::2]

or

## OPTION B ##
a = list1[0:][::2] # even
b = list1[1:][::2] # odd

And get have alternative elements in variable a and b.

But OPTION A is twice as fast