import sys

import string

list1 = ['physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000];

list1=list1.split(',');
print list1;
list1 = ":".join(list1);
return list1;

//declare an empty string

str1=" ";
sep="-";
list1 = ['physics', 'chemistry'];
len1 = len(list1);
print(len1)
def join_opr(sep,list1):
global str1
for i in list1:
str1=str1+i+sep
print(str1.rstrip(sep))

s = join_opr(sep,list1)
print(s);