Unpacking a list for printing in Python 2

Question

I had a problem understanding why unpacking doesn't work with list and print operator in Python 2.7:

>>> l=['a', 'b', 'c']
>>> print (*l, sep='')

Python 3.x works fine and prints:

abc

Python 2.7, however, raises an error:

 print (*l, sep='')
       ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

How can I make it work for Python 2.7?

I know that I can alternatively encode it using join: ''.join(l)

Answer 1

Because it is printnot a function in Python 2; Unpacking the list and providing it as positional arguments is not possible if it is not a function.

You need to import print_functionfrom __future__to support this:

>>> from __future__ import print_function

:

>>> l = ['a', 'b', 'c']
>>> print(*l, sep='')
abc

Answer 2

:

• :

  print ''.join(map(str, l))
  

• print() , from __future__, print:

  from __future__ import print_function
  
  print(*l, sep='')
  

  , __builtin__ module:

  import __builtin__
  print_function = getattr(__builtin__, 'print')
  
  print_function(*l, sep='')
  

  Python 2, 3, Python 2 , .