How to create a list of zeros in Python

Sometimes, you might need to initialize a list with a specific length in your program.

In Python, this can be done by creating a list of zeros, which is created by multiplying a [0] list with a number that represents the length of the list.

Here’s an example:

# List of 3
my_list = [0] * 3
print(my_list)

# List of 5
my_list = [0] * 5
print(my_list)

Output:

[0, 0, 0]
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0]

You can also save this syntax as a function so that you can use it as many times as you need:

def listofzeros(length):
    return [0] * length

# Call the function and pass the length
x = listofzeros(5)
y = listofzeros(7)

print("x:", x)
print("y:", y)

Output:

x: [0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
y: [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]

If you’re using NumPy, then you can use the zeros() method to create a matrix of zeros as follows:

import numpy as np

x = np.zeros((3,4), int)

print(x)

Output:

[[0 0 0 0]
 [0 0 0 0]
 [0 0 0 0]]

And that’s how you create a list of zeros in Python. Happy coding! 🙏