I really don't like how massive this code is. Is there a way I don't see to optimize it?

def to0Depth(arr0,_arr=[],old_arr=[], depth=0, INDEXES=[0],prevdepth=0):
    if len(INDEXES)-1 < depth:
        INDEXES.append(0)
    length = (range(len(arr0)),range(INDEXES[depth],len(arr0)))[INDEXES[depth] != 0 and depth<prevdepth]
    for i in length:
        if depth==0:
            old_arr = []
        if INDEXES[depth] != 0 and depth<prevdepth:
            i=INDEXES[depth]
            INDEXES[depth]=0
        if isinstance(arr0[i],list):
            old_arr.append(arr0)
            INDEXES[depth]=i+1
            return to0Depth(arr0[i],_arr,old_arr,depth+1, INDEXES,depth)
        else:
            _arr.append(arr0[i])
    
    if depth !=0:
        return to0Depth(old_arr[depth-1], _arr,old_arr,depth-1,INDEXES,depth)
    return _arr

#Random Matrixes 
a = [[1,2,8,6,[5,2,[452,258],1]],52,3,9,[52,1,2,[52,[12,52],5],90,8],8]

print(to0Depth(a)) 
#Output: [1, 2, 8, 6, 5, 2, 452, 258, 1, 52, 3, 9, 52, 1, 2, 52, 12, 52, 5, 90, 8, 8]

I really don't like how massive this code is. Is there a way I don't see to optimize it?

def to0Depth(arr0,_arr=[],old_arr=[], depth=0, INDEXES=[0],prevdepth=0):
    if len(INDEXES)-1 < depth:
        INDEXES.append(0)
    length = (range(len(arr0)),range(INDEXES[depth],len(arr0)))[INDEXES[depth] != 0 and depth<prevdepth]
    for i in length:
        if depth==0:
            old_arr = []
        if INDEXES[depth] != 0 and depth<prevdepth:
            i=INDEXES[depth]
            INDEXES[depth]=0
        if isinstance(arr0[i],list):
            old_arr.append(arr0)
            INDEXES[depth]=i+1
            return to0Depth(arr0[i],_arr,old_arr,depth+1, INDEXES,depth)
        else:
            _arr.append(arr0[i])
    
    if depth !=0:
        return to0Depth(old_arr[depth-1], _arr,old_arr,depth-1,INDEXES,depth)
    return _arr

#Random Matrixes 
a = [[1,2,8,6,[5,2,[452,258],1]],52,3,9,[52,1,2,[52,[12,52],5],90,8],8]

print(to0Depth(a)) 
#Output: [1, 2, 8, 6, 5, 2, 452, 258, 1, 52, 3, 9, 52, 1, 2, 52, 12, 52, 5, 90, 8, 8]

• python

• the operation you are looking for is called flattening, see for example ndarray.flatten in numpy – cards Commented 7 hours ago

1 Answer 1

Yes. You could try to optimize it with a recursive function. For example:

def flatten(arr0):
    result = []
    for item in arr0:
        if isinstance(item, list):
            result.extend(flatten(item))  # Recursively flatten sub-lists
        else:
            result.append(item)  # Add the non-list item directly
    return result

In this way you looks at each item in the list: if it's another list, it goes inside it and keeps doing this until it reaches the end while if it's not a list, it simply adds the item to the final result. Doing:

a = [[1, 2, 8, 6, [5, 2, [452, 258], 1]], 52, 3, 9, [52, 1, 2, [52, [12, 52], 5], 90, 8], 8]
print(flatten(a))

you should obtain the same desired result.