def nest_list(list1,rows, columns):    
        result=[]               
        start = 0
        end = columns
        for i in range(rows): 
            result.append(list1[start:end])
            start +=columns
            end += columns
        return result

for:

 list1=[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]
nest_list(list1,4,4)

Output:

[[0, 1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6, 7], [8, 9, 10, 11], [12, 13, 14, 15]]

If I understood correctly what you're asking, you have a case where numpy did not convert array of arrays into 2d array. This can happen when your arrays are not of the same size. Example:

Automatic conversion to 2d array:

import numpy as np
a = np.array([np.array([1,2,3]),np.array([2,3,4]),np.array([6,7,8])])
print a

Output:

>>>[[1 2 3]
    [2 3 4]
    [6 7 8]]

No automatic conversion (look for the change in the second subarray):

import numpy as np
b = np.array([np.array([1,2,3]),np.array([2,3,4,5]),np.array([6,7,8])])
print b

Output:

>>>[array([1, 2, 3]) array([2, 3, 4, 5]) array([6, 7, 8])]

I found a couple of ways of converting an array of arrays to 2d array. In any case you need to get rid of subarrays which have different size. So you will need a mask to select only "good" subarrays. Then you can use this mask with list comprehensions to recreate array, like this:

import numpy as np

a = np.array([np.array([1,2,3]),np.array([2,3,4,5]),np.array([6,7,8])])
mask = np.array([True, False, True])

c = np.array([element for (i,element) in enumerate(a) if mask[i]])

print a
print c

Output:

>>>>[array([1, 2, 3]) array([2, 3, 4, 5]) array([6, 7, 8])]
>>>>[[1 2 3]
     [6 7 8]]

Or you can delete "bad" subarrays and use vstack(), like this:

import numpy as np

a = np.array([np.array([1,2,3]),np.array([2,3,4,5]),np.array([6,7,8])])
mask = np.array([True, False, True])

d = np.delete(a,np.where(mask==False))
e = np.vstack(d)

print a
print e

Output:

>>>>[array([1, 2, 3]) array([2, 3, 4, 5]) array([6, 7, 8])]
>>>>[[1 2 3]
     [6 7 8]]

I believe second method would be faster for large arrays, but I haven't tested the timing.

If you really want a matrix, you might be better off using numpy. Matrix operations in numpy most often use an array type with two dimensions. There are many ways to create a new array; one of the most useful is the zeros function, which takes a shape parameter and returns an array of the given shape, with the values initialized to zero:

>>> import numpy
>>> numpy.zeros((5, 5))
array([[ 0.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  0.],
       [ 0.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  0.],
       [ 0.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  0.],
       [ 0.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  0.],
       [ 0.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  0.]])

Here are some other ways to create 2-d arrays and matrices (with output removed for compactness):

numpy.arange(25).reshape((5, 5))         # create a 1-d range and reshape
numpy.array(range(25)).reshape((5, 5))   # pass a Python range and reshape
numpy.array([5] * 25).reshape((5, 5))    # pass a Python list and reshape
numpy.empty((5, 5))                      # allocate, but don't initialize
numpy.ones((5, 5))                       # initialize with ones

numpy provides a matrix type as well, but it is no longer recommended for any use, and may be removed from numpy in the future.

np.array() is even more powerful than what unutbu said above. You also could use it to convert a list of np arrays to a higher dimention array, the following is a simple example:

aArray=np.array([1,1,1])

bArray=np.array([2,2,2])

aList=[aArray, bArray]

xArray=np.array(aList)

xArray's shape is (2,3), it's a standard np array. This operation avoids a loop programming.

I think you should use numpy, which is purpose-built for working with matrices/arrays, rather than a list of lists. That would look like this:

>>> import numpy as np
>>> list_ = [0,1,2,3]
>>> a = np.array(list_).reshape(2,2)
>>> a
array([[0, 1],
       [2, 3]])
>>> a.shape
(2, 2)

Avoid calling a variable list as it shadows the built-in name.

A pattern that often came up in Python was

bar = []
for item in some_iterable:
    bar.append(SOME EXPRESSION)

which helped motivate the introduction of list comprehensions, which convert that snippet to

bar = [SOME_EXPRESSION for item in some_iterable]

which is shorter and sometimes clearer. Usually, you get in the habit of recognizing these and often replacing loops with comprehensions.

Your code follows this pattern twice

twod_list = []                                       \                      
for i in range (0, 10):                               \
    new = []                  \ can be replaced        } this too
    for j in range (0, 10):    } with a list          /
        new.append(foo)       / comprehension        /
    twod_list.append(new)                           /