using the * (splat) operator with print

Question

I often use Python\'s print statement to display data. Yes, I know about the \'%s %d\' % (\'abc\', 123) method, and the \'{} {}\'.format(\'ab

Answer 1

print is a statement in Python 2.x and does not support the * syntax. You can see this from the grammar for print listed in the documentation:

print_stmt ::=  "print" ([expression ("," expression)* [","]]
                | ">>" expression [("," expression)+ [","]])

Notice how there is no option for using * after the print keyword.

---

However, the * syntax is supported inside function calls and it just so happens that print is a function in Python 3.x. This means that you could import it from __future__:

from __future__ import print_function

and then use:

print(*l)

Demo:

>>> # Python 2.x interpreter
>>> from __future__ import print_function
>>> l = [1, 2, 3]
>>> print(*l)
1 2 3
>>>