Understanding map, filter, and zip in Python
The purpose of this article is to understand how Python built-in functions map(), filter(), and zip() work to make you more efficient with processing data in Python!
I will go over how these functions work and provide use-cases with and without the functions to compare.
It is important to understand how these functions work, but there is a better way once you're finished reading this! Its called Comprehensions and I write about them in Beginner Python Comprehensions
Map
Python's map() function is used to apply a function on all elements of a specified iterable and return a map object.
map()
will take 2 required positional arguments. 1.) A function to run against iterables. 2.) An iterable (ie. list).
map(func, [...])
The expected output of this would be a map object
with a memory position.
Lets take an example that applies the function square()
to a list of integers. The objective here is to get a list of squared numbers from our original numbers
list.
def square(number):
return number*number
numbers = [1,2,3,4,5]
Without map()
def square(number):
return number*number
numbers = [1,2,3,4,5]
squared_numbers = []
for number in numbers:
squared = square(number)
squared_numbers.append(squared)
With map()
def square(number):
return number*number
numbers = [1,2,3,4,5]
squared_numbers = map(square, numbers)
What we observed:
- Using
map()
we don't need to create an empty list that we append to in a for loop. - We do not need to use
square()
with parenthesis as the function parameter, asmap()
will call the function for us, we just pass the function object. -
map()
will runsquare()
for each item innumbers
.
Filter
Python's filter() function checks a condition of each element in an iterable and returns a filtered data structure only containing elements who match the given conditions.
filter()
will take 2 required positional arguments. 1.) A function to run against iterables. 2.) An iterable (ie. list).
filter(func, [...])
The function passed to filter()
must return a boolean (True
or False
)
The expected output of this would be a filter object
with a memory position.
Lets take an example that applies the function even()
to a list of integers. The objective here is to get a list that only contains even numbers.
def even(number):
if (number % 2) == 0:
return True
return False
numbers = [1,2,3,4,5]
Without filter()
def even(number):
if (number % 2) == 0:
return True
return False
numbers = [1,2,3,4,5]
even_numbers = []
for number in numbers:
if even(number):
even_numbers.append(number)
With filter()
def even(number):
if (number % 2) == 0:
return True
return False
numbers = [1,2,3,4,5]
even_numbers = filter(even, numbers)
What we observed:
- Using
filter()
we don't need to create an empty list that we append to in a for loop. - We do not need to use
even()
with parenthesis as the function parameter, asfilter()
will call the function for us, we just pass the function object. -
filter()
will runeven()
for each item innumbers
and remove all elements that returnedFalse
.
Zip
Python's zip() function combines elements of 2 lists with matching indexes into an interable of tuples.
zip()
will take an undefined number of arguments where each argument is an iterable to zip.
zip([...], [...], [...], ...)
The expected output of this would be a zip object
containing tuples of the same-index element of each iterable with a memory position..
Let's take the above 2 examples combined to create a list of even numbers with their respective squared results.
def even(number):
if (number % 2) == 0:
return True
return False
def square(number):
return number*number
numbers = [1,2,3,4,5]
even_numbers = filter(even, numbers)
even_numbers_squared = map(square, even_numbers)
Without zip()
...
even_numbers = [2,4]
even_numbers_squared = [4, 8]
combined = []
even_numbers_index = 0
for number in even_numbers:
squared = even_numbers_squared[even_numbers_index]
squared_tuple = (number, squared)
combined.append(squared_tuple)
With zip()
...
even_numbers = [2,4]
even_numbers_squared = [4, 8]
zipped_result = zip(even_numbers, even_numbers_squared)
What we observed:
- Using
zip()
we can combine values with matching indexes from multiple lists without creating a buffer list or iterating with a for loop.
Conclusion
So hopefully with this you have a basic grasp on how these functions work, why they're useful, and how they can help you write more efficient and more readable Python code!
It is important to understand how these functions work, but there is a better way once you're finished reading this! Its called Comprehensions and I write about them in Beginner Python Comprehensions
Top comments (11)
I almost never use
map
orfilter
but it's good to know how they work. I use list comprehensions all the time though.A tip: you don't need to call
list()
on an iterable, unless you have a good reason to (like to print it as an example) you can just... iterate it :)This is a good intro on "functional Python": Functional Programming HOWTO
I predominantly use comprehensions as well, I actually completely forgot you could just iterate the objects so good call! I'm going to update this.
Hi. Sorry I am not very experienced but I spotted a couple of problems in your final bit about
zip()
.First off you try to iterate over
even_numbers
without callinglist()
. I can see others have argued here thatlist()
is not necessary, and I am but a hobby programmer, so I know very little of the deeper layers of programming and maybe I am doing it wrong, but when I try to run the code snippets here, it only works if I calllist()
on thefilter
andmap
returns. Otherwise I get errors in thefor
loop (does not iterate in the loop withoutlist()
onfilter
, gives aTypeError: 'map' object is not subscriptable
.You set
even_numbers_index = 0
and then in thefor
loop you setsquared = even_numbers_squared[even_numbers_index]
but you never updateeven_numbers_index
so for each iteration in the loop you keep calling the same index number. When we extend the input list a bit tonumbers = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
the result then becomes[(2, 4), (4, 4), (6, 4), (8, 4)]
giving an error in output compared to the intended.It works fine if we use
zip()
though and skip the for loop:[(2, 4), (4, 16), (6, 36), (8, 64)]
This is just in case others like me come by this otherwise great post to learn about
map
,filter
andzip
(and I really mean that. Short and well explained - thanks for that)Full code I was running:
Good catches! Sorry to be late to responding, but I'll make sure to edit these, thank you.
But remember, in Python comprehensions should be the first try for what could be done in map and filter.
Compressions can typically replace all 3 (map, filter, reduce) and can be used with zip.
The concepts here are still important to know. Libraries like pandas utilize the map syntax, or using a different language like JavaScript.
Absolutely, and thanks for commenting this, I hope everyone sees this as well!
I suppose you have to use the list() function on the result these three functions return because that's just an iterable instead of a list, right?
Correct. Map, filter, and zip objects are iterables, but we convert to a list for the sake of printing. :)
I am a little bit confused,
def square(number):
return number*number
even_numbers = [2,4]
correct me if I am wrong:
even_numbers_squared should be = [4, 16] instead of [4, 8]
Yupp you're correct! Just absent-mindedley added there instead apparently lol.