python - convert list of dicts to list

Question

I have a list of fields in this form

fields = [{'name':'count', 'label':'Count'},{'name':'type', 'label':'Type'}]

I'd like to extract just the names and put it in a list. Currently, I'm doing this:

names = [] 
for field in fields:
    names.append(field['name'])

Is there another way to do the same thing, that doesn't involve looping through the list.

I'm using python 2.7.

Thanks for your help.!

Answer 1

You can use a list comprehension:

>>> fields = [{'name':'count', 'label':'Count'},{'name':'type', 'label':'Type'}]
>>> [f['name'] for f in fields]
['count', 'type']