What is itertools.zip_longest in Python?

Can you explain what itertools.zip_longest does in Python?

Sure! itertools.zip_longest is a function that takes multiple iterables and aggregates them into tuples. If the iterables are of different lengths, it fills the shorter ones with a specified fill value.

How do I use zip_longest with a fill value?

You can use it like this: itertools.zip_longest(iterable1, iterable2, fillvalue='default'). This will fill missing values with 'default'.

Can you give me an example of its output?

Absolutely! If you have list1 = [1, 2, 3] and list2 = ['a', 'b'], using zip_longest(list1, list2, fillvalue='x') will give you [(1, 'a'), (2, 'b'), (3, 'x')].

Is zip_longest part of the standard library?

Yes, itertools is part of Python's standard library, so you can use zip_longest without any additional installations.