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I would like to keep the first and last elements of a list, and exclude others that meet defined criteria without using a loop. The first and last elements may or may not have the criteria of elements being removed.
As a very basic example,
aList = ['a','b','a','b','a']
[x for x in aList if x !='a']
returns ['b', 'b']
I need ['a','b','b','a']
I can split off the first and last values and then re-concatenate them together, but this doesn't seem very Pythonic.
You can use slice assignment:
>>> aList = ['a','b','a','b','a']
>>> aList[1:-1]=[x for x in aList[1:-1] if x !='a']
>>> aList
['a', 'b', 'b', 'a']
Yup, it looks like dawg’s and jez’s suggested answers are the right ones, here. Leaving the below for posterity.
Hmmm, your sample input and output don’t match what I think your question is, and it is absolutely pythonic to use slicing:
a_list = ['a','b','a','b','a']
# a_list = a_list[1:-1] # take everything but the first and last elements
a_list = a_list[:2] + a_list[-2:] # this gets you the [ 'a', 'b', 'b', 'a' ]
Here's a list comprehension that explicitly makes the first and last elements immune from removal, regardless of their value:
>>> aList = ['a', 'b', 'a', 'b', 'a']
>>> [ letter for index, letter in enumerate(aList) if letter != 'a' or index in [0, len(x)-1] ]
['a', 'b', 'b', 'a']
Try this:
>>> list_ = ['a', 'b', 'a', 'b', 'a']
>>> [value for index, value in enumerate(list_) if index in {0, len(list_)-1} or value == 'b']
['a', 'b', 'b', 'a']
Although, the list comprehension is becoming unwieldy. Consider writing a generator like so:
>>> def keep_bookends_and_bs(list_):
... for index, value in enumerate(list_):
... if index in {0, len(list_)-1}:
... yield value
... elif value == 'b':
... yield value
...
>>> list(keep_bookends_and_bs(list_))
['a', 'b', 'b', 'a']
I am looking for some help comparing the order of 2 Python lists, list1 and list2, to detect when list2 is out of order.
list1 is static and contains the strings a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j. This is the "correct" order.
list2 contains the same strings, but the order and the number of strings may change. (e.g. a,b,f,d,e,g,c,h,i,j or a,b,c,d,e)
I am looking for an efficient way to detect when list2 is our of order by comparing it against list1.
For example, if list2 is a,c,d,e,g,i should return true (as the strings are in order)
While, if list2 is a,d,b,c,e should return false (as string d appears out of order)
First, let's define list1:
>>> list1='a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j'.split(',')
>>> list1
['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j']
While your list1 happens to be in alphabetical order, we will not assume that. This code works regardless.
Now, let's create a list2 that is out-of-order:
>>> list2 = 'a,b,f,d,e,g,c,h,i,j'.split(',')
>>> list2
['a', 'b', 'f', 'd', 'e', 'g', 'c', 'h', 'i', 'j']
Here is how to test whether list2 is out of order or not:
>>> list2 == sorted(list2, key=lambda c: list1.index(c))
False
False means out-of-order.
Here is an example that is in order:
>>> list2 = 'a,b,d,e'.split(',')
>>> list2 == sorted(list2, key=lambda c: list1.index(c))
True
True means in-order.
Ignoring elements of list1 not in list2
Let's consider a list2 that has an element not in list1:
>>> list2 = 'a,b,d,d,e,z'.split(',')
To ignore the unwanted element, let's create list2b:
>>> list2b = [c for c in list2 if c in list1]
We can then test as before:
>>> list2b == sorted(list2b, key=lambda c: list1.index(c))
True
Alternative not using sorted
>>> list2b = ['a', 'b', 'd', 'd', 'e']
>>> indices = [list1.index(c) for c in list2b]
>>> all(c <= indices[i+1] for i, c in enumerate(indices[:-1]))
True
Why do you need to compare it to list1 since it seems like list1 is in alphabetical order? Can't you do the following?
def is_sorted(alist):
return alist == sorted(alist)
print is_sorted(['a','c','d','e','g','i'])
# True
print is_sorted(['a','d','b','c','e'])
# False
Here's a solution that runs in expected linear time. That isn't too important if list1 is always 10 elements and list2 isn't any longer, but with longer lists, solutions based on index will experience extreme slowdowns.
First, we preprocess list1 so we can quickly find the index of any element. (If we have multiple list2s, we can do this once and then use the preprocessed output to quickly determine whether multiple list2s are sorted):
list1_indices = {item: i for i, item in enumerate(list1)}
Then, we check whether each element of list2 has a lower index in list1 than the next element of list2:
is_sorted = all(list1_indices[x] < list1_indices[y] for x, y in zip(list2, list2[1:]))
We can do better with itertools.izip and itertools.islice to avoid materializing the whole zip list, letting us save a substantial amount of work if we detect that list2 is out of order early in the list:
# On Python 3, we can just use zip. islice is still needed, though.
from itertools import izip, islice
is_sorted = all(list1_indices[x] < list1_indices[y]
for x, y in izip(list2, islice(list2, 1, None)))
is_sorted = not any(list1.index(list2[i]) > list1.index(list2[i+1]) for i in range(len(list2)-1))
The function any returns true if any of the items in an iterable are true. I combined this with a generator expression that loops through all the values of list2 and makes sure they're in order according to list1.
if list2 == sorted(list2,key=lambda element:list1.index(element)):
print('sorted')
Let's assume that when you are writing that list1 is strings a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i that this means that a could be 'zebra' and string b could actually be 'elephant' so the order may not be alphabetical. Also, this approach will return false if an item is in list2 but not in list1.
good_list2 = ['a','c','d','e','g','i']
bad_list2 = ['a','d','b','c','e']
def verify(somelist):
list1 = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j']
while len(list1) > 0:
try:
list1 = list1[:list1.index(somelist.pop())]
except ValueError:
return False
return True
I'd like to join a list into a string by index in Python 3.3. I can do it for items the follow each other, but I would like to access it by index only.
this works:
list = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D']
partList = "".join(list[1:3])
-> BC
But how can I achieve this (it doesn't work):
list = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D']
partList = "".join(list[0,3])
-> AD
You can't slice lists into arbitrary chunks using slice notation. Probably your best bet for the general case is to use a list of indices to build a list comprehension.
mylist = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D'] # the full list
indices = [0, 3] # the indices of myList that you want to extract
# Now build and join a new list comprehension using only those indices.
partList = "".join([e for i, e in enumerate(mylist) if i in indices])
print(partList) # >>> AD
As pointed out in the comments by DSM, if you're concerned with efficiency and you know your list of indices will be "friendly" (that is, it won't have any indices too big for the list you're cutting up), you can use a simpler expression without enumerate:
partList = "".join([mylist[i] for i in indices])
What you are intending to perform is not slicing but selecting.
The closest possibility, I can think of is to use operator.itemgetter
>>> from operator import itemgetter
>>> mylist = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D']
>>> ''.join(itemgetter(0,3)(mylist))
'AD'
If you need to use a variable, then use a splat operator
index = (0,3)
''.join(itemgetter(*index)(mylist))
I have two lists (of different lengths). One changes throughout the program (list1), the other (longer) doesn't (list2). Basically I have a function that is supposed to compare the elements in both lists, and if an element in list1 is in list2, that element in a copy of list2 is changed to 'A', and all other elements in the copy are changed to 'B'. I can get it to work when there is only one element in list1. But for some reason if the list is longer, all the elements in list2 turn to B....
def newList(list1,list2):
newList= list2[:]
for i in range(len(list2)):
for element in list1:
if element==newList[i]:
newList[i]='A'
else:
newList[i]='B'
return newList
Try this:
newlist = ['A' if x in list1 else 'B' for x in list2]
Works for the following example, I hope I understood you correctly? If a value in B exists in A, insert 'A' otherwise insert 'B' into a new list?
>>> a = [1,2,3,4,5]
>>> b = [1,3,4,6]
>>> ['A' if x in a else 'B' for x in b]
['A', 'A', 'A', 'B']
It could be because instead of
newList: list2[:]
you should have
newList = list2[:]
Personally, I prefer the following syntax, which I find to be more explicit:
import copy
newList = copy.copy(list2) # or copy.deepcopy
Now, I'd imagine part of the problem here is also that you use the same name, newList, for both your function and a local variable. That's not so good.
def newList(changing_list, static_list):
temporary_list = static_list[:]
for index, content in enumerate(temporary_list):
if content in changing_list:
temporary_list[index] = 'A'
else:
temporary_list[index] = 'B'
return temporary_list
Note here that you have not made it clear what to do when there are multiple entries in list1 and list2 that match. My code marks all of the matching ones 'A'. Example:
>>> a = [1, 2, 3]
>>> b = [3,4,7,2,6,8,9,1]
>>> newList(a,b)
['A', 'B', 'B', 'A', 'B', 'B', 'B', 'A']
I think this is what you want to do and can put newLis = list2[:] instead of the below but prefer to use list in these cases:
def newList1(list1,list2):
newLis = list(list2)
for i in range(len(list2)):
if newLis[i] in list1:
newLis[i]='A'
else: newLis[i]='B'
return newLis
The answer when passed
newList1(range(5),range(10))
is:
['A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'B', 'B', 'B', 'B', 'B']
Given input:
list = [['a']['a', 'c']['d']]
Expected Ouput:
mylist = a,c,d
Tried various possible ways, but the error recieved is TypeError: list indices must be integers not tuple.
Tried:
1.
k= []
list = [['a']['a', 'c']['d']]
#k=str(list)
for item in list:
k+=item
print k
2.
print zip(*list)
etc.
Also to strip the opening and closing parenthesis.
What you want is flattening a list.
>>> import itertools
>>> l
[['a'], ['a', 'c'], ['d']]
>>> res = list(itertools.chain.from_iterable(l))
>>> res
['a', 'a', 'c', 'd']
>>> set(res) #for uniqify, but doesn't preserve order
{'a', 'c', 'd'}
Edit: And your problem is, when defining a list, you should seperate values with a comma. So, not:
list = [['a']['a', 'c']['d']]
Use commas:
list = [['a'], ['a', 'c'], ['d']]
And also, using list as a variable is a bad idea, it conflicts with builtin list type.
And, if you want to use a for loop:
l = [['a'], ['a', 'c'], ['d']]
k = []
for sublist in l:
for item in sublist:
if item not in k: #if you want list to be unique.
k.append(item)
But using itertools.chain is better idea and more pythonic I think.
While utdemir's answer does the job efficiently, I think you should read this - start from "11.6. Recursion".
The first examples deals with a similar problem, so you'll see how to deal with these kinds of problems using the basic tools.