# (Codewars) Range Extraction

A format for expressing an ordered list of integers is to use a comma separated list of either

• individual integers
• or a range of integers denoted by the starting integer separated from the end integer in the range by a dash, '-'. The range includes all integers in the interval including both endpoints. It is not considered a range unless it spans at least 3 numbers. For example ("12, 13, 15-17")

Complete the solution so that it takes a list of integers in increasing order and returns a correctly formatted string in the range format.

Example:

solution([-6, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20])
# returns "-6,-3-1,3-5,7-11,14,15,17-20"


Courtesy of rosettacode.org

### My Code

def solution(lst):
res = []
if lst:
tmp, i, ln = lst[0], 0, len(lst)
while i < ln:
tmp, j = lst[i], i
while j < ln - 1 and lst[j+1] == lst[j]+1:
j += 1
if j - i > 1:
tmp = str(lst[i]) + "-" + str(lst[j])
i = j+1
else:
i = (j if j > i else i+1)
res.append(tmp)
return ",".join(str(x) for x in res)


## Grouping

If you need to group anything using; groupby is probably the easiest way

Here we can use a itertools.groupby recipe to group the consecutive ranges:

>>> for _, g in groupby(enumerate(lst), lambda i_x : i_x[0] - i_x[1]):
...     print([x for _, x in g])
[-6]
[-3, -2, -1, 0, 1]
[3, 4, 5]
[7, 8, 9, 10, 11]
[14, 15]
[17, 18, 19, 20]


## Yielding the correct representation

Now all is left is to check whether there are more then 2 items in the range, and return the range. Else return all the numbers in the range normally

We can make this a generator, which yields either the range or a number, and afterwards join them together.

# Full Code

def group_consecutives(lst):
for _, g in groupby(enumerate(lst), lambda i_x : i_x[0] - i_x[1]):
r = [x for _, x in g]
if len(r) > 2:
yield f"{r[0]}-{r[-1]}"
else:
yield from map(str, r)

def range_extraction(lst):
return ','.join(group_consecutives(lst))