10 Essential Use Cases of Python’s zip() Function with Examples

1. Combining Two Lists

Use case: Merging two lists element-wise.

names = ["Alice", "Bob", "Charlie"]
ages = [25, 30, 35]

combined = list(zip(names, ages))
print(combined)  

[('Alice', 25), ('Bob', 30), ('Charlie', 35)]

2. Unzipping Lists

Use case: Splitting paired data into separate lists.

combined = [('Alice', 25), ('Bob', 30), ('Charlie', 35)]

names, ages = zip(*combined)
print(names)  
print(ages) 

('Alice', 'Bob', 'Charlie')
(25, 30, 35)

3. Iterating Over Multiple Lists Simultaneously

Use case: Useful when you need to iterate through multiple lists at the same time.

subjects = ['Math', 'Science', 'English']
scores = [88, 92, 85]

for subject, score in zip(subjects, scores):
    print(f"{subject}: {score}")

Math: 88
Science: 92
English: 85

4. Creating Dictionaries