is not the same as a
string. To convert from a string to a list of characters,
you can use <tt>list</tt>:</font><br />
<br />
<a name="@default529"></a>
<a name="@default530"></a>
<pre><font size="4" color="blue">
&gt;&gt;&gt; s = 'spam'
&gt;&gt;&gt; t = list(s)
&gt;&gt;&gt; print t
['s', 'p', 'a', 'm']
</font></pre><font color="black">Because <tt>list</tt> is the name of a built-in function, you should
avoid using it as a variable name. I also avoid <tt>l</tt> because
it looks too much like <tt>1</tt>. So 