1. Introduction

Arrays in Python are a compact way to store data of the same type. While arrays can be useful for certain operations, lists are more commonly used due to their flexibility and the vast number of built-in methods available. There may be instances where you need to convert an array to a list, whether to take advantage of these methods or simply because a list is the expected data type for a given operation. This blog post will show you how to perform this conversion.

Definition

Converting an array to a list in Python involves creating a list that contains all the elements that are in the array. This operation can be done easily using the array's built-in method to convert it to a list or by using the list() constructor.

2. Program Steps

1. Import the array module to work with arrays.

2. Create an array with the desired elements.

3. Convert the array into a list using either the tolist() method or the list() constructor.

4. Use or output the list for further operations.

3. Code Program

# Step 1: Import the array module
import array

# Step 2: Initialize an array with numeric elements
num_array = array.array('i', [1, 2, 3, 4, 5])

# Step 3: Convert the array into a list
num_list = num_array.tolist()  # Using tolist() method
# Alternatively, you can use:
# num_list = list(num_array)  # Using list() constructor

# Step 4: Print the list
print(num_list)

Output:

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Explanation:

1. The array module is required to create and manipulate an array.

2. num_array is an array of integers, as denoted by the type code 'i'.

3. num_list is created by calling tolist() on num_array. This method converts the array into a list. As an alternative, the list() constructor is also mentioned, which is another way to convert the array to a list.

4. The output is a list num_list, printed to the console, containing all the elements that were in num_array.