How can I fetch mysql single column list results directly into a list in python?

Question

I have a mysql call:

zip = 48326
cursor.execute ("""
 select distinct(name) 
 from usertab 
 where zip= %s
""" , (zip))
result = cursor.fetchall()

The result is returned in a tuple that looks like this:

result = (('alan',), ('bob',), ('steve',), ('tom',))

But I need a list like this:

mylist= ['alan', 'bob', 'steve', 'tom']

So I process the tuple into a list like this:

mylist = []
for row, key in enumerate(result):
 for col, data in enumerate(key):
 mylist.append(data)

This code works, but I'd like a simpler way.
How can I fetch a mysql single column result directly into a list?

• panofish: Thanks to Tadeck and Pawelmhm... I compacted my mysql fetch to this: mylist = [row[0] for row in cursor.fetchall()]

Answer 1

Do it like that, using list comprehension:

mylist = [row[0] for row in result]

It will flatten your result and create list from it.

Another approach, without list comprehension:

from itertools import chain
mylist = list(chain.from_iterable(result))

It will flatten a result and convert it to list.

Answer 2

75 % of Python question on StackOverflow can be answered with the words: "list comprehension";)

Here is a solution using list comp:

>>> result = (('alan',), ('bob',), ('steve',), ('tom',))
>>> mylist = [i[0] for i in result]
>>> mylist 
['alan', 'bob', 'steve', 'tom']

Please learn more about list comprehension here, it will save you a good deal of time.

• Tadeck: First ;) "75 % of Python question on StackOverflow can be answered with the words: "list comprehension";)" - do you have source for that?
• Pawel Miech: Well ok I don't have a source :) but really there is so many questions that can be solved with list comprehension, this tool is really so powerful, and so many people are unaware of it.
• Tadeck: Well, in fact, list comprehension is just a shortcut.