How do I apply this operation to a list?

Question

I have these two lists, mylist = {{a,b},{c,d}}, and mysecondlist = {1,2}

I want to generate this output: output = {{{a,b,1},{a,b,2}},{{c,d,1},{c,d,2}}}

In other words, output[[1,1,1]] = {mylist[[1,1]],mysecondlist[[1]]}, output[[1,1,2]] = {mylist[[1,1]],mysecondlist[[2]]}, and so on. The original 2D list becomes a 3D one.

I'm not actually sure what the name of the operation is, let alone which command to use in Mathematica. Is there a command that generates this, or do I have to do it with a Do loop that runs over all the possible indices and defines them one by one?

Answer 1

Outer[Append, mylist, mysecondlist, 1]

{{{a, b, 1}, {a, b, 2}}, {{c, d, 1}, {c, d, 2}}}

Also

Outer[Join, mylist, List /@ mysecondlist, 1]

Flatten /@ Tuples[{{#},  mysecondlist}] & /@ mylist

Flatten /@ Thread[{#, mysecondlist}, List, {2}] & /@ mylist 

Distribute[{mylist, mysecondlist}, List, List, Partition[{##}, 2] &, Append]

all give

 {{{a, b, 1}, {a, b, 2}}, {{c, d, 1}, {c, d, 2}}}

Answer 2

My train of thought to tackle that problem would be the following:

Each of the elements of your desired solution has the elements of the second list appended.

I would first try to construct each element separately. The first element would be.

Append[{a, b}, #] & /@ mysecondlist

which gives

{{a, b, 1}, {a, b, 2}}

Afterwards I would replace {a,b} by a variable and use Map to obtain a list of all elements.

Function[{x}, Append[x, #] & /@ mysecondlist] /@ mylist

which gives

{{{a, b, 1}, {a, b, 2}}, {{c, d, 1}, {c, d, 2}}}

So in short: Try to divide the problem in smaller, easier solvable chunks.