Python – Assign Alphabet to each element

When working with integer lists, you may need to assign alphabet letters to each element based on their sorted order. Python's string.ascii_lowercase module provides lowercase letters, and we can map them to unique values using list comprehension.

Syntax

import string
string.ascii_lowercase[index]  # Returns letter at given index

Example

Below is a demonstration that assigns alphabets to unique elements based on their sorted order ?

import string

my_list = [11, 51, 32, 45, 21, 66, 12, 58, 90, 0]

print("The list is:")
print(my_list)

print("The list after sorting is:")
my_list.sort()
print(my_list)

temp_val = {}
my_counter = 0

for element in my_list:
    if element in temp_val:
        continue
    temp_val[element] = string.ascii_lowercase[my_counter]
    my_counter += 1

my_result = [temp_val.get(element) for element in my_list]

print("The resultant list is:")
print(my_result)

The list is:
[11, 51, 32, 45, 21, 66, 12, 58, 90, 0]
The list after sorting is:
[0, 11, 12, 21, 32, 45, 51, 58, 66, 90]
The resultant list is:
['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j']

How It Works

• Import the string module to access ascii_lowercase

• Sort the list to establish alphabetical assignment order

• Create a dictionary to map unique numbers to letters

• Iterate through sorted list, skipping duplicates with continue

• Assign letters using string.ascii_lowercase[counter]

• Use list comprehension with get() to build final result

Alternative Using enumerate()

A more concise approach using enumerate() on unique sorted values ?

import string

numbers = [11, 51, 32, 45, 21, 66, 12, 58, 90, 0]
unique_sorted = sorted(set(numbers))

# Create mapping dictionary
alphabet_map = {num: string.ascii_lowercase[i] for i, num in enumerate(unique_sorted)}

# Apply mapping to original list
result = [alphabet_map[num] for num in numbers]

print("Original:", numbers)
print("Result:", result)

Original: [11, 51, 32, 45, 21, 66, 12, 58, 90, 0]
Result: ['b', 'i', 'e', 'f', 'd', 'j', 'c', 'h', 'g', 'a']

Conclusion

Use string.ascii_lowercase with dictionary mapping to assign alphabet letters to list elements. Sort first to establish consistent letter assignment order based on numeric values.