Python Program to Split Number into Digits

You can split a number into digits in Python by converting it to a string and using a list comprehension like [int(d) for d in str(number)] to get each digit as an integer.

Examples

Input123

Output[1, 2, 3]

Input4050

Output[4, 0, 5, 0]

Input7

Output[7]

How to Think About It

To split a number into digits, think of the number as a sequence of characters. Convert the number to a string so you can look at each character one by one. Then, change each character back to a number to get the digits.

Algorithm

1

Get the input number.

2

Convert the number to a string to access each digit.

3

For each character in the string, convert it back to an integer.

4

Collect all these integers into a list.

5

Return or print the list of digits.

Code

python

number = 12345

digits = [int(d) for d in str(number)]
print(digits)

Output

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Dry Run

Let's trace the number 12345 through the code

1

Convert number to string

str(12345) -> '12345'

2

Iterate over each character

Characters: '1', '2', '3', '4', '5'

3

Convert each character to int

int('1')=1, int('2')=2, int('3')=3, int('4')=4, int('5')=5

4

Collect digits into list

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Character	Digit
'1'	1
'2'	2
'3'	3
'4'	4
'5'	5

Why This Works

Step 1: Convert number to string

Using str(number) turns the number into a sequence of characters, making it easy to access each digit.

Step 2: Iterate over characters

Looping through the string lets us handle one digit at a time.

Step 3: Convert characters back to integers

Each character is converted back to an integer with int() to get the actual digit value.

Alternative Approaches

Using math operations

python

number = 12345
digits = []
while number > 0:
    digits.append(number % 10)
    number //= 10
digits.reverse()
print(digits)

This method uses division and modulus to extract digits from the end, then reverses the list to get the correct order.

Using map and str

python

number = 12345
digits = list(map(int, str(number)))
print(digits)

This uses <code>map()</code> to apply <code>int</code> to each character, which is clean and readable.

Complexity: O(n) time, O(n) space

Time Complexity

The program loops through each digit once, so time grows linearly with the number of digits.

Space Complexity

A new list stores all digits, so space also grows linearly with the number of digits.

Which Approach is Fastest?

Both string conversion with list comprehension and math operations have similar time complexity, but string methods are simpler and more readable.

Approach	Time	Space	Best For
String conversion with list comprehension	O(n)	O(n)	Simplicity and readability
Math operations with modulus and division	O(n)	O(n)	Avoiding string conversion
Using map with str	O(n)	O(n)	Clean functional style