Python map() function

Last Updated : 26 Jun, 2026

map() function in Python applies a function to every element of one or more iterables and returns a map object (iterator) containing the transformed results. It is commonly used for element-wise operations and can often replace explicit loops with shorter and more readable code.

Let's start with a simple example of using map() to convert a list of strings into a list of integers.

Python 
s = ['1', '2', '3', '4']
res = map(int, s)
print(list(res))

Output
[1, 2, 3, 4]

Explanation: map() applies int() to each element in 's' which changes their datatype from string to int.

Note: map() returns a lazy iterator, which means values are generated only when needed. Once a map object is consumed, it cannot be reused without creating a new one.

Syntax

map(function, iterable,...)

Parameters:

  • function: The function to apply to every element of the iterable.
  • iterable: One or more iterable objects (list, tuple, etc.) whose elements will be processed.

Note: You can pass multiple iterables if the function accepts multiple arguments.

Converting map object to a list

By default, map() function returns a map object. In many cases, we may need to convert this iterator to a list to work with the results directly.

Example: Let's see how to double each element of the given list.

Python 
def double(val):
    return val * 2

a = [1, 2, 3, 4]    
res = list(map(double, a))
print(res)

Output
[2, 4, 6, 8]

Explanation:

  • map(double, a) applies double() to each element in 'a'.
  • list() converts the map object to a list.

map() with lambda

Lambda function can be used with map() to define short transformation logic without creating a separate function.

Python 
a = [1, 2, 3, 4]
res = list(map(lambda x: x ** 2, a))
print(res)

Output
[1, 4, 9, 16]

Explanation: lambda x: x ** 2 squares each number and the results are converted into a list.

map() with multiple iterables

We can use map() with multiple iterables if the function we are applying takes more than one argument.

Example: In this example, map() takes two iterables (a and b) and applies lambda function to add corresponding elements from both lists.

Python 
a = [1, 2, 3]
b = [4, 5, 6]
res = map(lambda x, y: x + y, a, b)
print(list(res))

Output
[5, 7, 9]

Using map() with Tuples

map() works with any iterable, including tuples. The following example increments each element of a tuple by 1.

Python 
nums = (1, 2, 3)
res = tuple(map(lambda x: x + 1, nums))
print(res)

Output
(2, 3, 4)

Explanation:

  • lambda x: x + 1 increments each element by 1.
  • map() applies this transformation to every element in the tuple nums.
  • tuple() converts the resulting map object back into a tuple.

String Manipulation with map()

Converting strings to Uppercase

This example shows how we can use map() to convert a list of strings to uppercase.

Python 
fruits = ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry']
res = map(str.upper, fruits)
print(list(res))

Output
['APPLE', 'BANANA', 'CHERRY']

Explanation: str.upper method is applied to each element in the list fruits using map(). The result is a list of uppercase versions of each fruit name.

Extracting first character from strings

In this example, we use map() to extract the first character from each string in a list.

Python 
words = ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry']
res = map(lambda s: s[0], words)
print(list(res))

Output
['a', 'b', 'c']

Explanation: lambda s: s[0] extracts first character from each string in the list words. map() applies this lambda function to every element, resulting map object is converted to a list of the first characters using list().

Removing whitespaces from strings

In this example, We can use map() to remove leading and trailing whitespaces from each string in a list.

Python 
s = ['  hello  ', '  world ', ' python  ']
res = map(str.strip, s)
print(list(res))

Output
['hello', 'world', 'python']

Explanation: str.strip method removes leading and trailing whitespaces from each string in list strings and map() applies str.strip() to each element.

Real World Example

In this example, we use map() to convert a list of temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit.

Python 
celsius = [0, 20, 37, 100]
fahrenheit = map(lambda c: (c * 9/5) + 32, celsius)
print(list(fahrenheit))

Output
[32.0, 68.0, 98.6, 212.0]

Explanation:

  • lambda c: (c * 9/5) + 32 converts each Celsius temperature to Fahrenheit using standard formula.
  • map() function applies this transformation to all items in the list celsius.
Comment

Explore