大多数答案都使用循环遍历条目。这里我有一个使用EAFP方法的变体:尝试在输入上获得一个迭代器，如果成功，首先在第一个元素上运行函数，然后在这个迭代器的其余部分上运行。如果你不能得到迭代器，或者它是一个字符串或字节对象:产生元素。

感谢A. Kareem的建议，他发现我的代码非常慢，因为对字符串和字节对象的递归花费了太长时间，这里是我的代码的改进版本。

def flatten(x, it = None):
    try:
        if type(x) in (str, bytes):
            yield x
        else:
            if not it:
                it = iter(x)
            yield from flatten(next(it))
        if type(x) not in (str, bytes):
            yield from flatten(x, it)
    except StopIteration:
        pass
    except Exception:
        yield x

oldlist = [1,[[[["test",3]]]],((4,5,6)),[ bytes("test", encoding="utf-8"),7,[8,9]]]
newlist = [ x for x in flatten(oldlist) ]
print(newlist)
# [1, 'test', 3, 4, 5, 6, b'test', 7, 8, 9]

你可以使用第三方包iteration_utilities中的deepflatten:

>>> from iteration_utilities import deepflatten
>>> L = [[[1, 2, 3], [4, 5]], 6]
>>> list(deepflatten(L))
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

>>> list(deepflatten(L, types=list))  # only flatten "inner" lists
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

它是一个迭代器，所以你需要迭代它(例如用列表包装它或在循环中使用它)。在内部，它使用迭代方法而不是递归方法，并且它是作为C扩展编写的，因此它可以比纯python方法更快:

>>> %timeit list(deepflatten(L))
12.6 µs ± 298 ns per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 100000 loops each)
>>> %timeit list(deepflatten(L, types=list))
8.7 µs ± 139 ns per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 100000 loops each)

>>> %timeit list(flatten(L))   # Cristian - Python 3.x approach from https://stackoverflow.com/a/2158532/5393381
86.4 µs ± 4.42 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 10000 loops each)

>>> %timeit list(flatten(L))   # Josh Lee - https://stackoverflow.com/a/2158522/5393381
107 µs ± 2.99 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 10000 loops each)

>>> %timeit list(genflat(L, list))  # Alex Martelli - https://stackoverflow.com/a/2159079/5393381
23.1 µs ± 710 ns per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 10000 loops each)

我是iteration_utilities库的作者。

使用生成器函数可以使示例更易于阅读并提高性能。

Python 2

使用2.6中添加的Iterable ABC:

from collections import Iterable

def flatten(xs):
    for x in xs:
        if isinstance(x, Iterable) and not isinstance(x, basestring):
            for item in flatten(x):
                yield item
        else:
            yield x

Python 3

在Python 3中，basestring不再是，但元组(str, bytes)具有相同的效果。此外，yield from操作符每次从生成器返回一个项。

from collections.abc import Iterable

def flatten(xs):
    for x in xs:
        if isinstance(x, Iterable) and not isinstance(x, (str, bytes)):
            yield from flatten(x)
        else:
            yield x

我修改了接受的答案的代码，并添加了关键字max_depth，以只将其压平到指定的深度。Max_depth =0表示列表保持原样。也许有人可以用它:

def flatten(l, __depth=0, max_depth=100):

    for el in l:

        if isinstance(el, collections.Iterable) and not isinstance(el, (str, bytes)):

            __depth += 1
            if __depth <= max_depth:
                yield from flatten(el, __depth=__depth, max_depth=max_depth)
            else:
                yield el
            __depth -= 1

        else:

            yield el

一些例子:

# A
l = []
depth = 5
for i in range(depth):
    el = i
    for j in range(i):
        el = [el]
    l.append(el)
# [0, [1], [[2]], [[[3]]], [[[[4]]]]]

for i in range(depth):
    print(list(flatten_gen(l, max_depth=i)))
# [0, [1], [[2]], [[[3]]], [[[[4]]]]]
# [0,  1,   [2],   [[3]],   [[[4]]]]
# [0,  1,    2,     [3],     [[4]]]
# [0,  1,    2,      3,       [4]]
# [0,  1,    2,      3,        4]


# B
l = [[1, 2], [3, 4, [5, 6, [7, [8, [9]]], 10], 12, [13]], 14, [15]]

for i in range(6):
    print(list(flatten_gen(l, max_depth=i)))
# [[1, 2], [3, 4, [5, 6, [7, [8, [9]]], 10], 12, [13]], 14, [15]]
# [ 1, 2,   3, 4, [5, 6, [7, [8, [9]]], 10], 12, [13],  14,  15]
# [ 1, 2,   3, 4,  5, 6, [7, [8, [9]]], 10,  12,  13,   14,  15]
# [ 1, 2,   3, 4,  5, 6,  7, [8, [9]],  10,  12,  13,   14,  15]
# [ 1, 2,   3, 4,  5, 6,  7,  8, [9],   10,  12,  13,   14,  15]
# [ 1, 2,   3, 4,  5, 6,  7,  8,  9,    10,  12,  13,   14,  15]

使用递归和duck类型的生成器(为Python 3更新):

def flatten(L):
    for item in L:
        try:
            yield from flatten(item)
        except TypeError:
            yield item

list(flatten([[[1, 2, 3], [4, 5]], 6]))
>>>[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

@unutbu的非递归解决方案的生成器版本，由@Andrew在评论中要求:

def genflat(l, ltypes=collections.Sequence):
    l = list(l)
    i = 0
    while i < len(l):
        while isinstance(l[i], ltypes):
            if not l[i]:
                l.pop(i)
                i -= 1
                break
            else:
                l[i:i + 1] = l[i]
        yield l[i]
        i += 1

这个生成器的简化版本:

def genflat(l, ltypes=collections.Sequence):
    l = list(l)
    while l:
        while l and isinstance(l[0], ltypes):
            l[0:1] = l[0]
        if l: yield l.pop(0)