Question

Im writing a program and I’ve run into an issue where I need the program to create lists on its own.

animals = ["cat", "dog", "rat", "horse"]

For example. Then, I want a function that list.appends list.

def append()
    input = input(">>>")
    animals.append(input)

When it does this, I want it to make a new list for the user input that is entered. Is there anyway to do this without having to use file functions?

The ultimate goal is for this function to:

• Append the list “animals” (Got that part)
• Then, I want it to create a new list that is unique to the input. The list might be referred to by the user input if at all possible.
• Lastly, I want this list to be editable by the user Which is easy with list.append. But I need to somehow then be able to refer to this unique list in order to do that.

Hope that clears up some confusion.

Answer 1

I hope I understood where you are aiming at. I suggest you use a dict of lists:

animals = {}
while True:
    print(', '.join(i for i in animals))
    animal = input('Choose an animal, or pick a newe one: ')
    if animal == "":
        break
    item = input('enter item: ')    
    animals.setdefault(animal,[]).append(item)

print(animals)

Choose an animal, or pick a newe one: rat
enter item: foo
rat
Choose an animal, or pick a newe one: dog
enter item: bar
rat, dog
Choose an animal, or pick a newe one: 
{'rat': ['foo'], 'dog': ['bar']}