Convert a flat list to list of lists in python

>>> l = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f']
>>> zip(*[iter(l)]*2)
[('a', 'b'), ('c', 'd'), ('e', 'f')]

As it has been pointed out by @Lattyware, this only works if there are enough items in each argument to the zip function each time it returns a tuple. If one of the parameters has less items than the others, items are cut off eg.

>>> l = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f','g']
>>> zip(*[iter(l)]*2)
[('a', 'b'), ('c', 'd'), ('e', 'f')]

If this is the case then it is best to use the solution by @Sven Marnach

How does zip(*[iter(s)]*n) work

This is usually done using the grouper recipe from the itertools documentation:

def grouper(n, iterable, fillvalue=None):
    "grouper(3, 'ABCDEFG', 'x') --> ABC DEF Gxx"
    args = [iter(iterable)] * n
    return itertools.izip_longest(fillvalue=fillvalue, *args)

Example:

>>> my_list = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g']
>>> list(grouper(2, my_list))
[('a', 'b'), ('c', 'd'), ('e', 'f'), ('g', None)]