Django Template Won't Display List - django

Question

I've had a look at previous questions, and I'm unable to find an answer to my issue.
I'm trying to display a 2D list, which I have done earlier in the HTML with a different list.
I've used a similar method for the other list but it wont display, I'm just getting the headers.
HTML:
<table class="listtable" >
<thead>
<tr>
<th>No</th>
<th>Account No</th>
<th>Time</th>
<th>Message</th>
</tr>
</thead>
{% for person in user %}
<tr>
{% for message in person %}
<td>{% autoescape off %}{{ message }}{% endautoescape %}</td>
{% endfor %}
</tr>
{% endfor %}
</table>
I've printed the list in the view, so I know that within the view it is correct. I am 100% sure that I've used the correct variables as well.
The code in the view is similar to:
user = get_data_from_other_source()
for item in user:
print(item)
The print displays exactly what it should.
The list is along the lines off:
[4, '<account number>', '<time>', 'somestring']
[3, '<account number>', '<time>', 'somestring']
The page source says:
<table class="listtable" >
<thead>
<tr>
<th>No</th>
<th>Account No</th>
<th>Time</th>
<th>Messages</th>
</tr>
</thead>
</table>
EDIT: Moderated view code..
#login_required(login_url='/login')
def page_control(request):
acc_no = request.session['acc_no']
user = setup_page_control (acc_no)
for item in user:
print(item)
return render_to_response("<htmlfile>.html",
locals(),
context_instance=RequestContext(request))
def setup_user_control(acc_no):
messages = <outside magic>
user = reversed(messages)
return user
I have gutted a lot out of the code, and changed variable names etc..
I've only deleted stuff which I am 100% sure are not the problem

Answer 1

An explanation for the issue you found:
reversed() returns a reverse iterator. This is NOT the reversed list as you expect it to be:
>>> a = [1,2,3,4,5]
>>> print reversed(a)
<listreverseiterator object at 0x...>
As you can see, reversed(a) is not the list in reverse, but the actual iterator itself. In order to get the reversed list like you want you can use:
user = list(reversed(messages))
# or
user = messages[::-1]
(source: How can I reverse a list in python?)

Answer 2

I believe your response should be like this:
return render_to_response("<htmlfile>.html",
{'user':user},
context_instance=RequestContext(request))

Answer 3

I've found my issue, but I'm not sure why it happened.
When I removed:
user = reversed(messages)
The template was willing to output the list again. Awfully odd. If anyone knows why, it would be great for an explanation :)