[(1,2),(3,4),(5,6),]

[1,3,5],[2,4,6]

>>> zip(*[(1, 2), (3, 4), (5, 6)])
[(1, 3, 5), (2, 4, 6)]

map(list, zip(*[(1, 2), (3, 4), (5, 6)]))

>>> zip((1,3,5),(2,4,6))
[(1, 2), (3, 4), (5, 6)]
>>> zip(*[(1, 2), (3, 4), (5, 6)])
[(1, 3, 5), (2, 4, 6)]

>>> map(list, zip(*[(1, 2), (3, 4), (5, 6)]))
[[1, 3, 5], [2, 4, 6]]

a = [(1,2),(3,4),(5,6),]
b = zip(*a)
>>> [(1, 3, 5), (2, 4, 6)]

def t1(zs):
    xs, ys = zip(*zs)
    return xs, ys

def t2(zs):
    xs, ys = [], []
    for x, y in zs:
        xs.append(x)
        ys.append(y)
    return xs, ys

def t3(zs):
    xs, ys = [x for x, y in zs], [y for x, y in zs]
    return xs, ys

if __name__ == '__main__':
    from timeit import timeit
    setup_string='''
N = 2000000
xs = list(range(1, N))
ys = list(range(N+1, N*2))
zs = list(zip(xs, ys))
from __main__ import t1, t2, t3
'''
    print(f'zip:tt{timeit('t1(zs)', setup=setup_string, number=1000)}')
    print(f'append:tt{timeit('t2(zs)', setup=setup_string, number=1000)}')
    print(f'list comp:t{timeit('t3(zs)', setup=setup_string, number=1000)}')

zip:            122.11585397789766
append:         356.44876132614047
list comp:      144.637765085659

[[*x] for x in zip(*[(1,2),(3,4),(5,6)])]
>>> [[1, 3, 5], [2, 4, 6]]

xs, ys = [], []
for x, y in zs:
    xs.append(x)
    ys.append(y)

Using *zip:     1.54701614s
Using append:   0.52687597s

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import time

N = 2000000
xs = list(range(1, N))
ys = list(range(N+1, N*2))
zs = list(zip(xs, ys))

t1 = time.time()

xs_, ys_ = zip(*zs)
print(len(xs_), len(ys_))

t2 = time.time()

xs_, ys_ = [], []
for x, y in zs:
    xs_.append(x)
    ys_.append(y)
print(len(xs_), len(ys_))

t3 = time.time()

print('Using *zip:t{:.8f}s'.format(t2 - t1))
print('Using append:t{:.8f}s'.format(t3 - t2))

Python 3.6.3 (default, Oct 24 2017, 12:18:40)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 8.1.0 (clang-802.0.42)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.