Create list of single item repeated N times

Question

I want to create a series of lists, all of varying lengths. Each list will contain the same element e, repeated n times (where n = len

Answer 1

As others have pointed out, using the * operator for a mutable object duplicates references, so if you change one you change them all. If you want to create independent instances of a mutable object, your xrange syntax is the most Pythonic way to do this. If you are bothered by having a named variable that is never used, you can use the anonymous underscore variable.

[e for _ in xrange(n)]