title: how can I check the length of a list?
body: <p>I have a list in python and I want to know the number of "words"/"products" in it:</p>
  
  <pre><code>     print shopping_list
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>output: ['milk,cookies,apples']</p>
  
  <p>now the output should be 3 but its 1 and I don't understand why :</p>
  
  <pre><code>    print len(shopping_list)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>output: 1</p>
  
  <p><strong><em>note</em></strong> I need it to be one string that contains those words separated by commas  </p>