# flattens a list eg. flatten(1, 2, ['b','a','c']) = [1, 2, 'a', 'b', 'c'] def flatten(*args): x = [] for l in args: if not isinstance(l, (list, tuple)): l = [l] for item in l: if isinstance(item, (list,tuple)): x.extend(flatten(item)) else: x.append(item) return x