Add 'and' before the last item in a string list

Question

Okay so I'm trying to make a function that will take a list of items and return (not print!) a string of that list, separated by commas with an 'and' before the last item in the list. My script so far looks like this:

rose1 = Thing("red rose", "flowerbox")
rose2 = Thing("pink rose","garden")
rose3 = Thing("white rose", "vase")

def text_list(things):
    """Takes a sequence of Things and returns a formatted string that describes all of the things.

    Things -> string"""
    names=[o.name for o in things]
    if len(names) == 0:
        return 'nothing'
    elif len(names) == 2:
        names = ' and the '.join(names)
        return 'the ' + names
    else:   #Here's where I need help!
        names = ', the '.join(names)
        return 'the ' + names

So at this point the function returns "the red rose, the pink rose, the white rose" which is great, but I need that last "and" to be put in between the pink rose and the white rose, and I can't use print. Any help? This is probably simple and I'm just missing it entirely OTL

Answer 1

You can do it in a single line:

print(', '.join([*lst[:-1], f'and {lst[-1]}']))

For example:

a_list = ['a', 'b', 'c']
print(', '.join([*a_list[:-1], f'and {a_list[-1]}']))

This produces the result

a, b, and c

This will of course won't give the desired results if the list consists of a single item or the empty list.