creating a spiral array in python?

Question

Me and my mate were trying to create a fun game in python where the elements entered in the array are accessed in a spiral manner. I have tried few methods like one given be

Answer 1

def spiral(m):
 a=[]
 t=list(zip(*m)) # you get the columns by zip function

 while m!=[]:
  if m==[]:
    break
  m=list(zip(*t)) # zip t will give you same m matrix. It is necessary for iteration
  a.extend(m.pop(0)) # Step1 : pop first row
  if m==[]:
    break
  t=list(zip(*m))
  a.extend(t.pop(-1)) # Step 2: pop last column
  if m==[]:
    break
  m=list(zip(*t))
  a.extend(m.pop(-1)[::-1]) # Step 3: pop last row in reverse order
  if m==[]:
    break
  t=list(zip(*m)) 
  a.extend(t.pop(0)[::-1]) # Step 4: pop first column in reverse order
 return a

This solution is O(n); just one while loop; much faster and can be used for much bigger dimensions of matrices