Question

I was wondering if there was a particular method that would allow me to take a list element (["3D"]) and, using a for loop, nest it within another list ([["3D"]]) while avoiding the current type-conversion problem I’m having which results in [["3","D"]].

I’ve included the following for clarity;

hand = ["3D", "4D", "4C", "5D", "JS", "JC"]

from itertools import groupby 

def generate_plays(hand):
    plays = []
    for rank,suit in groupby(hand, lambda f: f[0]):
        plays.append(list(suit))
    for card in hand:
        if card not in plays:       #redundant due to list nesting
            plays.append(list(card))       #problematic code in question
    return plays

output:

[['3D'], ['4D', '4C'], ['5D'], ['JS', 'JC'], ['3', 'D'], ['4', 'D'], ['4', 'C'], ['5', 'D'], ['J', 'S'], ['J', 'C']]

expected output:

[['3D'], ['4D', '4C'], ['5D'], ['JS', 'JC'], ['4D'], ['4C'], ['5D'], ['JS'], ['JC']]

Just to reiterate, the aim here is to preserve the concatenated-ness of the card element in the for loop.

Many thanks.

P.S. For those interested, it is a play generator for a card game where single cards and 2+ of a number can be played

Answer 1

hand = ["3D", "4D", "4C", "5D", "JS", "JC"]

from itertools import groupby 

def generate_plays(hand):
    plays = []
    for rank,suit in groupby(hand, lambda f: f[0]):
        plays.append(list(suit))
    for card in hand:
        if [card] not in plays:       #redundant due to list nesting
            plays.append([card])       #problematic code in question
    return plays

print generate_plays(hand)