How to Remove Item from a Python List in a Loop

How to remove list elements in a for loop in Python?

You are not permitted to remove elements from the list while iterating over it using a for loop.

The best way to rewrite the code depends on what it is you're trying to do.

For example, your code is equivalent to:

for item in a:
    print(item)
a[:] = []

Alternatively, you could use a while loop:

while a:
    print(a.pop())

I'm trying to remove items if they match a condition. Then I go to next item.

You could copy every element that doesn't match the condition into a second list:

result = []
for item in a:
    if condition is False:
        result.append(item)
a = result

Alternatively, you could use filter or a list comprehension and assign the result back to a:

a = filter(lambda item:... , a)

or

a = [item for item in a if ...]

where ... stands for the condition that you need to check.

How to remove items from a list while iterating?

You can use a list comprehension to create a new list containing only the elements you don't want to remove:

somelist = [x for x in somelist if not determine(x)]

Or, by assigning to the slice somelist[:], you can mutate the existing list to contain only the items you want:

somelist[:] = [x for x in somelist if not determine(x)]

This approach could be useful if there are other references to somelist that need to reflect the changes.

Instead of a comprehension, you could also use itertools. In Python 2:

from itertools import ifilterfalse
somelist[:] = ifilterfalse(determine, somelist)

Or in Python 3:

from itertools import filterfalse
somelist[:] = filterfalse(determine, somelist)

Python: How to remove elements from list while iterating through it without skipping future iterations

You are right. You need an additional list. But there is an easier solution.

def print_numTXTs(fileList):

    counter = 0
    for file in list(fileList):
        if file.name[-4:] == ".txt":
            counter +=1
            if file.name == "a.txt":
                fileList.remove(file)
   

The secret is "list(fileList)". You creating an additional list and iterates over this.

Just as powerful are list compressions. In your example it should work like this. I have not tried now...only quickly written here.

fileList = [ file for file in fileList if file.name != "a.txt" ]

Remove element from list of lists during loop

You need to make copy of original list and then iterate over new copy and remove the items from original list

for item in list(original_list):
  ...
  original_list.remove(item)

In your case, code will look like below

total_read = 0

for i in range(21):
    random.shuffle(info)
    for index, value in enumerate(list(info)):
        b, p, s = value
        if len(s) <= i+1:
            print("Overshot! Shouldn't see this sentence anymore: %s" % (s))
            info.pop(index)
        print s[:i+1], i, s

        total_read += len(s[i + 1])

About removing an item from a list with a for loop

The second code works because a new list is created with list(a). You then iterate through the new list and remove items from the original list.

The second code is acceptable in the sense that you are not iterating through the same list you are modifying.

Removing element from a list in a for loop

It's not a good idea to remove elements from a list while looping through it. You can always make a copy and update it:

import copy
my_list= copy.deepcopy(master_list)

However, a better approach would be to use list comprehensions:

master_list = [{"irrelevant_key": "irrevelant_value", 
                "relevant_key": 
                  [[{"first_value": "first_key"}, {"problem_key": 0}],
                  [{"second_value": "second_key"}, {"problem_key": 1}]],
                }]
for lst in master_list:
  lst['relevant_key'] = [x for x in lst['relevant_key'] if x[1]['problem_key'] != 0 ]

nested looping to remove items in list

Your logic is confused, why are your iterating over the removal list, del1, and then within that iterating over s (or l).

This makes no sense.

Instead, just remove elements from del1, as you go.

l = [1,5,10,5,10]
del1 = [5,10]
a = []
for element in l:
   if element in del1:
       del1.remove(element)
   else:
       a.append(element)

giving a as [1, 5, 10].

---

A more efficient way is to use a collections.Counter object.

import collections
l = [1,5,10,5,10]
del1 = [5,10]
a = []
dels_to_go = collections.Counter(del1)
for element in l:
    if dels_to_go[element]:
        dels_to_go[element] -= 1
    else:
        a.append(element)

which gives the same output as before.

---

Note, you may be tempted to use a set(), but this would not work in the case of del1 containing repeated values.

Python: Removing list element while iterating over list

You could always iterate over a copy of the list, leaving you free to modify the original:

for item in list(somelist):
  ...
  somelist.remove(item)

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