convert a word to a list of chars [duplicate]

Answer 1

In Python string is iterable. This means it supports special protocol.

>>> s = '123'
>>> i = iter(s)
>>> i

>>> i.next()
'1'
>>> i.next()
'2'
>>> i.next()
'3'
>>> i.next()

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
    i.next()
StopIteration

list constructor may build list of any iterable. It relies on this special method next and gets letter by letter from string until it encounters StopIteration.

So, the easiest way to make a list of letters from string is to feed it to list constructor:

>>> list(s)
['1', '2', '3']