Unzipping with zip(*)

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Accepted Answer

zip(*pairs) unpacks the list of tuples and re-zips them, effectively transposing rows into columns. zip(*[(1,'a'),(2,'b'),(3,'c')]) is the same as zip((1,'a'),(2,'b'),(3,'c')). The results are tuples, not lists. This pattern is common in data work to separate parallel sequences that were zipped together.