Python Language List Comprehensions Nested List Comprehensions

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Example

Nested list comprehensions, unlike list comprehensions with nested loops, are List comprehensions within a list comprehension. The initial expression can be any arbitrary expression, including another list comprehension.

#List Comprehension with nested loop
[x + y for x in [1, 2, 3] for y in [3, 4, 5]]
#Out: [4, 5, 6, 5, 6, 7, 6, 7, 8]

#Nested List Comprehension
[[x + y for x in [1, 2, 3]] for y in [3, 4, 5]]
#Out: [[4, 5, 6], [5, 6, 7], [6, 7, 8]]

The Nested example is equivalent to

l = []
for y in [3, 4, 5]:
    temp = []
    for x in [1, 2, 3]:
        temp.append(x + y)
    l.append(temp)

One example where a nested comprehension can be used it to transpose a matrix.

matrix = [[1,2,3],
          [4,5,6],
          [7,8,9]] 

[[row[i] for row in matrix] for i in range(len(matrix))]
# [[1, 4, 7], [2, 5, 8], [3, 6, 9]]

Like nested for loops, there is not limit to how deep comprehensions can be nested.

[[[i + j + k for k in 'cd'] for j in 'ab'] for i in '12']
# Out: [[['1ac', '1ad'], ['1bc', '1bd']], [['2ac', '2ad'], ['2bc', '2bd']]]


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