We are living in a new world, a world racing online as social distancing forces many of us to work, communicate and connect in new ways. In the United States alone, state and local directives have urged 316 million Americans to stay in and, when possible, work from home. As communities around the world adapt to a world with COVID-19, broadband connectivity and access are more critical to our lives and livelihoods than ever before.

Broadband already powers much of our modern lives, but COVID-19 has acted as an accelerant, a fuel of sorts that has driven many essential activities online. All learning, services, commerce, most workplaces and daily interactions online require a high-speed connection to the internet. Those without access to this online world – more than 18 million Americans with 14 million living in rural areas, according to the Federal Communications Commission – risk falling farther behind. While 18 million is a big number – more than the entire populations of Indiana, Iowa and Tennessee combined – a new study has found that the actual number of people lacking access to broadband in the US is closer to 42 million.

We will eventually come out the other end of the COVID-19 crisis, but the future that emerges will look different from the world we left when this crisis began. The future of commerce, work, medicine, education and services will have changed – and, in some instances, permanently.

A problem intensified by COVID-19

Lack of broadband for rural populations, both in the United States and in the developing world, just can’t be ignored. That’s why, in the last three months, we’ve doubled down on our Microsoft Airband Initiative to expand the number of people reached. As of March 31, we’ve helped provide 1.2 million people with access to broadband in rural, previously unserved areas of the United States. This is almost double our total from December 31, 2019, and up from 24,000 people in the whole of 2018. We’re doing the most recent work by donating hotspots and wireless connectivity equipment, and expanding our digital skills offerings by developing COVID-19-specific digital skills offerings for rural communities.

We’re undertaking this work in tandem with ISPs, state and local governments, non-profits such as the National 4-H Council, and other mission-aligned public- and private-sector entities. Eight out of 12 of our commercial ISP partners have taken the FCC’s Keep Americans Connected Pledge, committing to maintaining connectivity to customers who are economically impacted by the crisis. Even those partners that have not formally signed on to the FCC’s pledge have committed to serving their communities by maintaining connectivity for existing customers and connecting new subscribers. The Airband Team has published a customer-ready Airband US COVID-19 Response Summary outlining our programmatic and policy responses to COVID-19 in the US.

We’re not the only ones trying to make a difference. Companies across the country are stepping up to the plate, including tech companies such as Google and T-Mobile. But it isn’t just tech that’s helping – companies such as Land O’Lakes are also working to close the broadband gap. We need the government to step up and meet us halfway.

Policy principles and new federal funding to accelerate much-needed changes

The most significant way to move the dial for Americans without broadband is by changing policy at the federal, state and local level, not only for more funding but to remove roadblocks so that broadband can reach rural and underserved Americans faster. In short, there’s a critical need for Congress to do three things.

First, Congressional action is needed to address the immediate broadband connectivity needs that are having a heightened impact on individuals and communities during the COVID-19 crisis. Funding is needed in the next stimulus bill so that students and teachers have access to remote learning, people have access to their doctors and other telehealth options, and to help people work from home, file and maintain their unemployment benefits, and apply for jobs online.

Second, there’s an urgent need to provide funding to the FCC so it can implement recently enacted broadband-mapping legislation. As we’ve said before, we can’t solve a problem we don’t understand.

Third, additional action is needed to permanently close the broadband gap. With accurate data on broadband availability, we recommend Congress provides funds based on seven important principles. Namely, these funds should be:

1. Targeted: Any broadband funding mechanism should be designed to address a known market need; for example, the need to deliver broadband access to unserved rural areas and connect students without broadband access before schools start in the fall.

2. Technology neutral: Broadband funding should be made available on a technology neutral basis.

3. Broadband-capable: Networks should be required to meet at least the FCC-defined speed for broadband.

4. Least costly: To minimize costs, funding amounts should be determined through a competitive bidding process (the FCC’s use of reverse auctions is an example of such a mechanism).

5. Non-distortionary: Any program should aim to minimize market distortions in how funds are collected and how they are distributed.

6. Deployed quickly: Preference should be given to broadband providers that commit to rapid deployment of broadband networks and services.

7. Avoid administrative burdens: Programs should minimize red tape and only impose requirements on recipients that are necessary to ensure the integrity of the programs.

With this approach, the country can finally provide the funding needed for ISPs to close the broadband gap. In addition, we support efforts by the FCC, USDA and other federal and state agencies to release funds under new and existing programs to address the needs of vulnerable healthcare workers and patients, educators and learners, and remote workers. This is especially important because, in times of economic downturn, states are more cash-strapped than usual and don’t have resources necessary to make these critical investments.

The COVID-19 virus has created a national crisis. But it has also created an important opportunity. It’s time to galvanize the nation and recognize the obvious. Broadband has become the electricity of the 21st century. Well before the end of the 20th century, we recognized that no American should live without electricity. As we embark on the third decade of the 21st century, every American deserves the opportunity to access broadband.

Tags: Airband initiative, broadband access, COVID-19, rural broadband

This latest Beta brings those playing closer to what you would see and expect on the Java Edition of Minecraft.  Overall a lot of fixes are the main focus on this beta.  If you find more please be sure to report them to Mojang Studios!

Remember that only those on Xbox One / Windows 10 / and Android may participate in the Beta builds.  You will not be able to join Realms or non-beta players worlds and you will not be able to open worlds opened in the Beta in earlier/current stable builds of Bedrock.

Crashes and Stability

• Fixed several crashes that could occur during gameplay
• Fixed a crash when auto crafting 64 honey blocks from recipe book in survival MCPE-68604
• Fixed an issue that could occur if the player equipped any piece of netherite armor, used a clear command to clear it, and then equipped another piece of netherite armor of the same type
• Fixed a crash that could happen when a mob’s state changed
• Fixed navigation.walk to handle the case where it is used on a flying entity, so that the flying entity will not cause lag while it is touching the ground

General

• Updated Mojang Studios loading screens
• Nether biome distribution now better matches that in Minecraft: Java Edition
• Fixed issue where players on Xbox One may have errors accessing the Marketplace
• Improved reliability of loading characters MCPE-55968
• Fixed an instance where a character can be lost when offline
• Fixed an issue that prevented achievements from being unlocked offline after reconnecting
• Fix issue of incorrect player hand animations when using fishing rod in third person MCPE-63088
• Fixed the Xbox main menu getting stuck forever after cancelling the sync popup box MCPE-53266
• Secondary players in a splitscreen game will now animate properly when you look at them
• Suspending and resuming the game will no longer make a player’s model disappear MCPE-63119
• The second player’s hands in a split screen game will no longer disappear when you look at them with the first player MCPE-58806
• Nether Bricks texture has been updated
• Chiseled Netherbrick and Quartz Bricks textures are updated
• Crimson Trap Door is now called Crimson Trapdoor
• Warped Forest are now more rare compared to other Nether biomes
• When players enter Warped Forest, the previous music track now plays until it’s finished
• Bedrock Credits have been updated
• Fixed issue where experimental mode was not being enabled for clients when the server level has it enabled
• Optimised sound loading – “load_on_low_memory” is now deprecated in sound_definitions.json, as all audio can now play on low memory devices
• Fixed a world conversion issue that was causing some items in chunks to convert to Bedrock incorrectly

Gameplay

• Dyeing shulker boxes no longer causes items to vanish MCPE-64164
• Fixed incorrect spawn position when set on top of a pressure plate MCPE-65487
• Fixed issue where taking Arrows, Fireworks, or Nautilus shells into the offhand will break the offhand UI slot MCPE-64227
• Fixed an issue where lava would drop uncooked food MCPE-74767
• Added fallback to world spawn if the Respawn Anchor spawn is obstructed
• “You home bed was missing or obstructed” message shows again
• “Respawn point set” message is now displayed for the Respawn Anchor in all cases MCPE-73159
• Respawn Anchors can be charged without setting respawn point and without exploding outside the Nether MCPE-69044
• The Respawn Anchor can now have blocks placed against if it contains no charge
• Villagers will now harvest crops regardless of what crop amounts they have in their inventory MCPE-67694
• XP orbs shoot in random directions once again MCPE-58715
• It’s now impossible to use beds if there is no room for the player to stand next to or on top of the bed when they wake up MCPE-42881
• It’s now impossible to interact with Piglins who are admiring golden items MCPE-69861
• Respawn anchors no longer destroy blocks when detonated underwater
• Respawn Anchor now plays an appropriate sound when it depletes MCPE-69265
• Lodestone Compass is now supported in commands  MCPE-68994
• Barrier blocks no longer generate in Bastion Remnants
• Chests in Bastion Remnants now always generate with loot  MCPE-69003
• Mobs no longer consume one of two Swords of the same material dropped in the same place
• Fixed Smithing table sound not playing while being used  MCPE-69066
• Respawn Anchor charging sound no longer plays in Basalt Delta biome  MCPE-69189
• Lodestone and compass now play an appropriate sound
• Twisting Vines Block is now called Twisting Vines
• ‘Oooh, shiny!’ achievement now unlock when distracting a Piglin with a Gold Ingot by right-clicking
• Twisting Vines and Weeping Vines are now destroyed, and popped as items, immediately when flooded
• Mined Nether Sprouts no longer produce an invalid item that could not be used MCPE-74339
• Moving blocks now have the correct collision box MCPE-62419
• Fire now properly converts to Soul Fire on Soul Sand and Soul Soil when Fire ticking is turned off  MCPE-69823
• Campfires can now be crafted with charcoal MCPE-70862
• Using Quartz Block in a stonecutter now produces Quartz Slabs instead of Smooth Quartz slabs MCPE-57925
• Dispenser now uses 1 glowstone when filling Respawn Anchor  MCPE-72686
• Silk touch enchant now works on Respawn Anchor
• Silk touch enchant and setBlock command now works on Crimson button, Warped button, Crimson hyphae, Stripped crimson hyphae, Warped hyphae, Stripped warped hyphae, Weeping vines, Twisting vines, Blackstone pressure plate, Polished blackstone button
• Chains can now be pushed by Pistons without breaking
• Soul Torches can now also be crafted with charcoal MCPE-70585
• Warped Fungus on a Stick can now be enchanted similar to Carrot on a Stick MCPE-70948
• Striders now take falling damage MCPE-70886
• Baby Strider sitting on an adult Strider now freeze when its parent is on land MCPE-71413
• Striders movement speed has been adjusted to closer match Minecraft Java Edition
• Netherite items will not catch fire because they are fire resistant
• Large Basalt Columns can no longer be over 10 blocks tall
• Basalt Deltas now have the correct blocks generating in the biome
• Blackstone Buttons, Pressure Plates, Slabs and Walls now have the right appearance on Maps
• Respawn Anchor can now only be mined by Diamond or Netherite Pickaxe MCPE-72102
• Mobs now prefer Stone Sword over Gold Sword (except for Piglins!)
• Twisting Vines and Weeping Vines now emit correct sounds when broken
• Chain now plays correct sound when placed
• Lodestone now requires a Pickaxe to be mined
• Many doors had their texture updated
• Warped Stem and Crimson Stem now have the same mining time as Oak Log
• Warped Planks or Crimson Plank slabs no longer appear as default in recipes for some items
• Player no longer spawns on a block after relaunching the world while falling
• Fixed an issue that could cause the player to respawn underwater
• Netherite shovel can now be used to extinguish campfires MCPE-65730
• Soul soul can be mined more quickly with shovels now MCPE-65382
• Crimson and Warped Hyphae (including stripped) can now be crafted into planks in Bedrock MCPE-73099
• Weeping Vines can now be grown using bone meal with dispensers MCPE-65660

Mobs

• Fixed an issue where chickens on slabs wouldn’t take damage from lava MCPE-74990
• Hoglins should now always be pacified after fleeing from Warped Fungus
• Mobs can now pathfind on Soul Sand blocks
• Piglins can now outrun Hoglins
• Hoglins will retaliate against crossbow wielding Piglins less frequently
• Villagers no longer drop items they pick up
• Using Pickblock on Zoglin now gives Zoglin spawn egg
• Netherite helmet now renders properly on Piglins
• Hoglins and Zoglins are now more resistant to knockback
• Piglins now make a retreating sound while fleeing from Soul Fire Torches, Soul Fire Lanterns and Soul Fire
• Piglins and Hoglins behavior while fleeing has been improved
• Zoglin and Zombified Piglin no longer drown in lava
• Changed many mobs’ behavior while drowning in lava
• Aggravated Piglins no longer barter
• Gold Ingot now always properly render in Piglins hand during bartering
• Mobs should no longer consume items they pick up
• Piglin now become angry when Trapped Chests are destroyed
• Hoglins no longer flee from Zoglins
• The Zombified Piglin texture has been updated
• Mobs that can equip helmet armor can now also equip Turtle Shell
• Fixed an issue where tamed pets would occasionally disappear after transferring to or from the nether
• Angry Bees are now slower MCPE-53689

Blocks

• Iron Bars and Glass Panes now connect to Walls MCPE-73989
• Hyphae blocks can now be crafted into their respective planks MCPE-73099
• Moving blocks now have the correct collision box  MCPE-62419

Graphical

• Fixed low light emitting block items not matching the placed blocks brightness
• Fixed mobs in mob spawners not being visible MCPE-56879
• Maps in item frames no longer have lines through them MCPE-46154
• Fixed maps missing textures after reloading world MCPE-54228
• Fixed issue where lighting wasn’t refreshed when going through portals back into overworld MCPE-338144
• Fixed the excessive hand bob motion caused by playing an animation on the hand and camera together MCPE-54072
• Items held by mobs should now render correctly
• Lodestone Compass now renders properly in the inventory

User Interface

• Tweaked Server Tab navigation
• Creative Recipe Books show item groupings again
• Added a background to title and subtitle text with adjustable opacity Opacity can be changed in the “Accessibility” tab in the Settings menu
• Added a background to the actionbar text used in the /title command The same background is also applied to the item text above the hotbar
• Smithing Table UI has been updated

Commands

• Fixed a bug where bees and other new mobs were missing a non-“minecraft:” version for /summon commands. You should be able to spawn vanilla mobs without it! MCPE-58557
• Added new overload for /replaceitem with an option for destroy (the old behavior) or keep (the command will return an error if an item occupies that slot)
• Fixed issue where the clear command would not clear damaged tools
• /setblock command fails on the new blocks if attempted with non-default state MCPE-65395
• /setblock command now works for more block states

Add-Ons and Scripting

• Fixed knockback issue that stopped crates in “Rescue Mission Lava Town” Marketplace pack from moving when hit
• Added a new loop mode to animations: now instead of omitting “loop” to have it stop playing when finished, or setting “loop”: true to have it loop when finished, you can now say “loop”: “hold_on_last_frame” to keep applying the last frame of animation
• A content error will now show up if a Range json node is defined as an array with a single value
• A content error will now show up if you use more than one Move Control Component, Jump Control Component, or Navigation Component
• Functions with a mix of invalid and valid commands will only execute the valid ones with command version 1.15 and below In these cases, the function name will not show up in the auto-suggestion list but can still be executed if typed out
• Starting on 1.16, functions with any invalid commands (for example incorrect selector syntax) will no longer register and cannot be called
• When setting the json variables “attack_interval_min” and “attack_interval_max”, the component will now correctly throw a content error if the max is less than the min MCPE-63542
• Fixed issue where sounds would sometimes have incorrect settings applied to them leading to 2D sounds to play as 3D and vice versa
• Fixed issue that was cutting off playing sound incorrectly, though can still easily occur if audio is loaded up that takes up a lot of memory
• Comments in JSON arrays no longer cause an error MCPE-40873

Epic Games has made a few additions to its Epic Games Store platform that developers should be aware of, particularly involving how games can be sold through third-party retailers, and rules around how players can refund some game purchases.

On that third-party retailer addition, Epic now has partnerships with Fanatical, Green Man Gaming, and Genba Digital that allows Epic Games Store-hosted games to be sold and purchased through those outside platforms without keys changing hands.

It’s something Epic says gives players more confidence that they’re making legitimate purchases, and it’s similar an earlier feature Epic rolled out for Humble’s digital game storefronts. On all supported third-party stores, players can now link up their EGS accounts and automatically redeem third-party purchases on the Epic Games Store.

On the refund front, Epic has added a “self-service” refund feature that gives players the ability to request refunds through their transaction history for games with less than two hours of logged play time purchased within the last 14 days.

Those requirements aren’t new by any means as they’re the same play restrictions the company rolled out last January when it first added the refund feature. Instead, the change removes some of the friction from the process. Previously anyone after a refund would need to reach out to support with their request while moving forward that same request can made with the press of a button.

In this GDC 2020 virtual talk Ubisoft’s Adam Ritchie offers insight into the effort that goes into making NPCs talk in games like Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, as well as the pipeline and tools behind it.

It was an in-depth look at some of the challenges faced and overcome by the Voice Production team on a big, triple-A online, open-world game project.

If you didn’t catch it live earlier this year, good news: you can now watch Ritchie’s talk anytime you like over on the official GDC YouTube channel!

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page.

The collection of NES games available to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers continues to grow over time, albeit slowly, and there are now over 50 retro releases from the original Nintendo Entertainment System to enjoy on the service, and today Rygar joined the lineup.

We recently asked Nintendo Life readers to rate the available NES games on Switch using our User Rating system, and it’s now time to reveal the results! The following list is compiled using the ratings (out of 10) given to each game in our database.

It should be noted, however, that this list is not set in stone and will automatically change over time to reflect the ratings. If you look below and see a game you think deserves to be higher up, click on the ‘Profile’ button and score it yourself – your personal rating could boost its placement in the overall ranking.

So, settle down and prepare to scroll through the best NES games available on Nintendo Switch Online in the West (see our full list of every Nintendo Switch Online NES and SNES game for Japanese exclusives). We begin, naturally, at the bottom…

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo R&D1

Release Date: 19th Nov 2006 (USA) / 22nd Dec 2006 (UK/EU)

The beautiful game has seen more than its fair share of digital iterations over the years. This quaint early effort won’t keep you occupied for long, but Soccer is an intriguing look into early sports titles on the system and worth firing up at least once.

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo R&D1

Release Date: 12th Nov 2007 (USA) / 10th Aug 2007 (UK/EU)

Certain entries in Nintendo’s ‘Black Box’ series have aged better than others and, unfortunately, Volleyball went off long ago. In fact, we’d go as far as to say it’s the worst of Nintendo’s early sports titles, providing only the very basics of the game in a rather unattractive package. We much prefer a round of Tennis when it comes to ball-based net sports, but we suppose you’ve got nothing to lose in firing up Volleyball for a match or two.

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo R&D1

Release Date: 1st Jan 2007 (USA) / 29th Dec 2006 (UK/EU)

Another rather primitive take on a national sport, the ‘Black Box’ title Baseball is a slow-and-steady game that takes time to master, but persevere and you’ll find it to be a fun, if simple, experience – especially with a second player in tow. It’s more of a historical document at this point, but there’s fun to be had if you give it a chance.

Publisher: HAMSTER / Developer: Jaleco

Release Date: 26th May 2008 (USA) / 25th Jul 2008 (UK/EU)

City Connection didn’t look or feel particularly good back in the day, and time has not been kind to Jaleco’s city-hopping arcade port. With so many other options available in the NES library, getting behind the wheel of this one again isn’t recommended unless you’re determined to take every last NES title available for a quick test drive.

Publisher: Culture Brain / Developer: Nihon Game

Release Date: 1988 (USA) / 5th Mar 2015 (UK/EU)

You’ll need to bring a second player along to get the most out of Kung-Fu Heroes. It’s a simple martial arts game but the combination of decent moves, power-ups and the tactical options that come from having two players controlling Jacky and Lee makes this one worth a go, especially if you’re a fan of kung-fu fighting.

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo R&D1

Release Date: 1st Sep 2008 (USA) / 6th Mar 2009 (UK/EU)

If you can stomach the odd controls and steep difficulty, you may well be able to mine some fun from Clu Clu Land, and as a ‘Black Box’ title it’s certainly got curio kudos. That said, this arcade puzzle-style maze game is unlikely to keep your attention unless you’re a real Nintendo enthusiast or scholar. We’d be tempted to leave our Rupee collecting to Link.

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo R&D1

Release Date: 18th Dec 2006 (USA) / 22nd Dec 2006 (UK/EU)

Rudimentary is perhaps too kind an adjective to describe Tennis, although we’ve always had a soft spot for it (and its Game Boy brethren, in particular). It’s an extremely simple take on the sport, and not one that’ll keep you occupied for any length of time, but at the very least it’s fun to see how far we’ve come.

Game? Why not. Set? Hmm, perhaps. Match? Nah, you’re alright – let’s play Mario Bros. 3.

Publisher: Tecmo / Developer: Tecmo

Release Date: 7th May 2007 (USA) / 27th Apr 2007 (UK/EU)

A relatively unique offering from Tecmo, Mighty Bomb Jack won’t click with everyone and couldn’t be described as ‘essential’. However, if you’ve played through all the obvious NES platformers and are looking for something a bit different, this hybrid platformer offers a good challenge that’s fun to control. Worth a look for arcade-style platforming fans.

Publisher: Electro Brain / Developer: Sculptured Software

Release Date: Nov 1991 (USA) / 29th Apr 1993 (UK/EU)

One of the lesser-known entries in the NES lineup, Eliminator Boat Duel is worth firing up if you’ve never taken its powerboats for a spin. A bird’s-eye view racer from the early ’90s, it isn’t likely to rock your world, but it’s a solid addition to the console’s library and there are many worse ways to spend an hour or two than at the wheel of a ruddy great 8-bit powerboat. The odd ’90s mix of 12-year-old boy’s fantasy and technicolor on the cover alone makes it worth investigating at least once.

Publisher: Hudson / Developer: Hudson

Release Date: 30th Jul 2007 (USA) / 15th Aug 2013 (UK/EU)

As vertical shooters go, Star Soldier hasn’t aged brilliantly, and looks particularly drab these days. It’s not without merit, and shooter fans may get a kick from it, but better alternatives are readily available. One for ‘fans of the genre’ only, then.

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo

Release Date: 1st Mar 1987 (USA) / 15th Sep 1987 (UK/EU)

“A WINNER IS YOU.” This game is worth playing at least once just to see that iconic meme phrase in its original context. It’s a simple interpretation of professional wrestling with a slim roster, but it’s charged with nostalgia and personality, and given the sorry state of the genre in recent years (Fire Pro Wrestling notwithstanding), you could do much worse than returning to Pro Wrestling for a bout.

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo R&D1

Release Date: 19th Nov 2007 (USA) / 24th Aug 2007 (UK/EU)

Wrecking Crew isn’t something we’d recommend spending vast sums on, but it’s definitely worth checking out as part of the Nintendo Switch Online package of NES games. It can be a frustrating experience and it lacks the control finesse players would come to expect from later Nintendo efforts, but as an early 8-bit Mario puzzle-platformer, it certainly warrants investigation.

A wildly popular operation you’ll find in any (non-trivial) code base is to concatenate lists—but there are multiple methods to accomplish this. Master coders will always choose the right method for the right problem.

This tutorial shows you the difference between three methods to concatenate lists:

• Concatenate two lists with the + operator. For example, the expression [1, 2, 3] + [4, 5] results in a new list [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. More here.
• Concatenate two lists with the += operator. This operation is inplace which means that you don’t create a new list and the result of the expression lst += [4, 5] is to add the elements on the right to the existing list object lst. More here.
• Concatenate two lists with the extend() method of Python lists. Like +=, this method modifies an existing list in place. So the result of lst.extend([4, 5]) adds the elements 4 and 5 to the list lst. More here.

To summarize: the difference between the + method and the += and extend() methods is that the former creates a new list and the latter modify an existing list object in-place.

You can quickly compare those three methods in the following interactive code shell:

Puzzle: Can you already figure out the outputs of this code snippet?

Fear not if you can’t! I’ll explain you each detailed example next.

Method 1: Add (+)

The standard way of adding two lists is to use the + operator like this:

# METHOD 1: ADD +

lst = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann']

lst_new = lst + [42, 21]

print(lst)

print(lst_new)

While the + operator is the most readable one (especially for beginner coders), it’s not the best choice in most scenarios. The reason is that it creates a new list each time you call it. This can become very slow and I’ve seen many practical code snippets where the list data structure used with the + operator is the bottleneck of the whole algorithm.

In the above code snippet, you create two list objects in memory—even though your goal is probably just to update the existing list ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann'].

This can be nicely demonstrated in the code visualization tool:

Just keep clicking “Next” until the second list appears in memory.

Method 2: INPLACE Add (+=)

The += operator is not well understood by the Python community. Many of my students (join us for free) believe the add operation lst += [3, 4] is just short for lst = lst + [3, 4]. This is wrong and I’ll demonstrate it in the following example:

# METHOD 2: INPLACE ADD +=

lst = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann']

lst_old = lst

lst += [42, 21]

print(lst)

print(lst_old)

Again, you can visualize the memory objects with the following interactive tool (click “Next”):

The takeaway is that the += operation performs INPLACE add. It changes an existing list object rather than creating a new one. This makes it more efficient in the majority of cases. Only if you absolutely need to create a new list, you should use the + operator. In all other cases, you should use the += operator or the extend() method.

Speaking of which…

Method 3: Extend()

Like the previous method +=, the list.extend(iterable) method adds a number of elements to the end of a list. The method operators in-place so no new list object is created.

# METHOD 3: EXTEND()

lst = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann']

lst_old = lst

lst.extend([42, 21])

print(lst)

print(lst_old)

Here’s the interactive memory visualization:

Click “Next” and explore how the memory allocation “unfolds” as the execution proceeds.

Speed Comparison Benchmark

Having understood the differences of the three methods + vs += vs extend(), you may ask: what’s the fastest?

To help you understand why it’s important to choose the best method, I’ve performed a detailed speed benchmark on my Intel i7 (8th Gen) Notebook (8GB RAM) concatenating lists with increasing sizes using the three methods described previously.

Here’s the result:

The plot shows that with increasing list size, the runtime difference between the + method (Method 1), and the += and extend() methods (Methods 2 and 3) becomes increasingly evident. The former creates a new list for each concatenation operation—and this slows it down.

Result: Thus, both INPLACE methods += and extend() are more than 30% faster than the + method for list concatenation.

You can reproduce the result with the following code snippet:

import time # Compare runtime of three methods

list_sizes = [i * 300000 for i in range(40)]

runtimes_1 = [] # Method 1: + Operator

runtimes_2 = [] # Method 2: += Operator

runtimes_3 = [] # Method 3: extend() for size in list_sizes: to_add = list(range(size)) # Get time stamps time_0 = time.time() lst = [1] lst = lst + to_add time_1 = time.time() lst = [1] lst += to_add time_2 = time.time() lst = [1] lst.extend(to_add) time_3 = time.time() # Calculate runtimes runtimes_1.append((size, time_1 - time_0)) runtimes_2.append((size, time_2 - time_1)) runtimes_3.append((size, time_3 - time_2)) # Plot everything

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import numpy as np runtimes_1 = np.array(runtimes_1)

runtimes_2 = np.array(runtimes_2)

runtimes_3 = np.array(runtimes_3) print(runtimes_1)

print(runtimes_2)

print(runtimes_3) plt.plot(runtimes_1[:,0], runtimes_1[:,1], label='Method 1: +')

plt.plot(runtimes_2[:,0], runtimes_2[:,1], label='Method 2: +=')

plt.plot(runtimes_3[:,0], runtimes_3[:,1], label='Method 3: extend()') plt.xlabel('list size')

plt.ylabel('runtime (seconds)') plt.legend()

plt.savefig('speed.jpg')

plt.show()

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