Find and replace multiple values in python

Question

I want to find and replace multiple values in an 1D array / list with new ones.

In example for a list

a=[2, 3, 2, 5, 4, 4, 1, 2]

I woul

Answer 1

>>> arr = np.empty(a.max() + 1, dtype=val_new.dtype)
>>> arr[val_old] = val_new
>>> arr[a]
array([3, 4, 3, 1, 5, 5, 2, 3])