Splitting a list into sub-list

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Define a function split_into_k which takes a list l of length n and an integer k and splits the list l into a list of k sublists of length n // k.

def split_into_k(l, k):
    n = len(l)
    m = n // k
    return [l[i*m:(i+1)*m] for i in range(k)]

Examples with a list of length 12:

sage: A = [1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 2, 7, 9, 0, -1, -2]

Split it into 3 or 4:

sage: split_into_k(A, 3)
[[1, 2, 3, 4], [6, 8, 2, 7], [9, 0, -1, -2]]
sage: split_into_k(A, 4)
[[1, 2, 3], [4, 6, 8], [2, 7, 9], [0, -1, -2]]

If k does not divide len(l), the trailing part is removed.

sage: split_into_k(A, 5)
[[1, 2], [3, 4], [6, 8], [2, 7], [9, 0]]

Other options would be to raise an exception or to have a shorter last part.

In case the goal is to construct a matrix: if provided the desired matrix size, the matrix constructor can eat a non-nested list of values.

Examples using the list A above:

sage: A = [1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 2, 7, 9, 0, -1, -2]
sage: a = matrix(ZZ, 3, 4, A)
sage: a
[ 1  2  3  4]
[ 6  8  2  7]
[ 9  0 -1 -2]

sage: b = matrix(ZZ, 4, 3, A)
sage: b
[ 1  2  3]
[ 4  6  8]
[ 2  7  9]
[ 0 -1 -2]

This opens up other ways to write the function split_into_k.

For instance:

def split_into_k(A, k):
    return [list(row) for row in matrix(k, len(A) // k, A)]

Example:

sage: split_into_k(A, 3)
[[1, 2, 3, 4], [6, 8, 2, 7], [9, 0, -1, -2]]
sage: split_into_k(A, 4)
[[1, 2, 3], [4, 6, 8], [2, 7, 9], [0, -1, -2]]

Note that the resulting lists might have slight differences, as all elements will now be part of a same ring.

For instance if there was one rational but non-integer entry in the initial list, all elements of the nested lists returned by this version of split_into_k will now be rationals.