Python list remove doesn t work
While lists aren’t the most efficient data structure if you’ll be doing lots of deleting from the middle, there are definitely good ways to accomplish the task. The built-in Show
Remove element in Python list by value
If you want to safely remove items, and you aren’t sure if they exist in the list or not, you can either catch the error:
Or, you can check for existence first:
Remove an element in Python list by indexThe
Again, you need to be careful. If the index doesn’t exist an error will be raised.
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Remove item by index and return itThe
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In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use Python to remove an item from a list. You’ll learn how to do this using the pop, remove, del, and clear methods, as well as how to remove just one instance of an item or all instances. You’ll also learn how to remove multiple Python list items conditionally. Python lists are mutable data types, meaning that they can be changed. They are also indexed, meaning that their order matters and that items can be accessed (and modified) based on their index position. Being able to work with lists and knowing how to remove items is an important skill. For example, you could be building a game where you need to remove items as players select them. Python provides a number of different methods to remove items from a list. Below, you’ll find a quick summary of the different methods and how they remove items. In the sections below, you’ll find in-depth guides as to how these functions work.
The Quick Answer: Use pop, remove, and del
Python Remove Method to Remove List Item Based on its ValuePython makes it easy to delete a list item based on its value by using the Python list Let’s see how we can use the # Remove a list item by value using .remove() values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] values.remove(1) print(values) # Returns: ['datagy', 2, 3, 'datagy'] We applied the remove method to our list, in place – meaning that we didn’t need to reassign the values. But what happens if we try to remove an item that doesn’t exist? Let’s see what happens when we try to run the code below: # Remove a list item by value using .remove() that doesn't exist values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] values.remove(4) print(values) # Returns: ValueError: list.remove(x): x not in list We can see that when we try to use the Let’s see how we can do that below: # Remove a list item by value using .remove() values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] try: values.remove(4) except ValueError: pass print(values) # Returns: ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] We can see here that when the In the next section, you’ll learn how to use the Python Check out some other Python tutorials on datagy, including our complete guide to styling Pandas and our comprehensive overview of Pivot Tables in Pandas! Python Remove All Items Matching a ValueAs shown below, the Python In particular, our while loop will continue to remove the item from our list while the item still exists in our list. Let’s see how this works in Python: # Remove all list items by value using .remove() values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] while 'datagy' in values: values.remove('datagy') print(values) # Returns: [1, 2, 3] We can see here that the remove method is applied as many times as the item ‘datagy’ is still in our list. At that point, the code moves on and prints out the values of our list. Another way that we can do this is to use a list comprehension. We can have the list comprehension loop over each item in our list see if the item is equal to the item we want to remove. If it’s not, then we include it in our new list. Let’s see what this looks like in Python: # Remove all list items by value using .remove() values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] values = [value for value in values if value != 'datagy'] print(values) # Returns: [1, 2, 3] In the example above, we looped over each item in our list and included the value if it wasn’t equal to the item we wanted to remove. In the next section, you’ll learn how to use the Python Want to learn more about Python f-strings? Check out my in-depth tutorial, which includes a step-by-step video to master Python f-strings! Python Pop Method to Remove a List Item Based on Index PositionThe Python Let’s see how this works in Python: # Remove a list item by position using .pop() values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] values.pop(0) print(values) # Returns: [1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] We can see that when we pop an item that exists, then the value is removed from the list and is returned. How do we access the popped item? We can assign it to a value. Let’s see how we can do this: # Remove a list item by index using .pop() values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] item = values.pop(0) print(item) # Returns: datagy Let’s see what happens when we try to apply the # Remove a list item by index position using pop() that doesn't exist values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] values.pop(6) print(values) # Returns: IndexError: pop index out of range We can see that when we try to pop an item that doesn’t exist, then we return an In the next section, you’ll learn how to remove an item using the Need to check if a key exists in a Python dictionary? Check out this tutorial, which teaches you five different ways of seeing if a key exists in a Python dictionary, including how to return a default value. Python del Method to Remove a List Item Based on Index Position and Don’t Return itThe
Python The Let’s see how we can do both of this using the Python del operator: # Remove list items by value using del values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] del values[0] print(values) # Returns: [1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] del values[1:3] print(values) # Returns: ['datagy', 3, 'datagy'] We can see that in we can both delete a single item or a slice of items from a list in Python. But
what happens when we try to delete an item at a position that doesn’t exist? We raise an # Remove list items by value using del values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] del values[10] print(values) # Returns: IndexError: list assignment index out of range In the next section, you’ll learn how to remove all items from a Python list using the clear method. Want to learn how to use the Python Remove All Items from a Python List with ClearThere may be times when you want to remove all items from a Python list – this is where the Let’s see how we can use the # Clear an Entire list in Python values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] values.clear() print(values) # Returns: [] We can see here when we apply the In the next section, you’ll learn how to remove items from a Python list using slicing. Want to learn more about Python for-loops? Check out my in-depth tutorial that takes your from beginner to advanced for-loops user! Want to watch a video instead? Check out my YouTube tutorial here. Remove Items from a Python List with SlicingWe can also remove items from a list by simply slicing the list. The benefit of this approach is that we can reverse the method of using slicing using the del method, by specifying items that we want to keep. For example, if we wanted to keep all items except for the first and last item, we could write the following: # Removing list items using slicing values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] values = values[1:-1] print(values) # Returns: IndexError: [1, 2, 3] Here we re-assign the Python list to a slice of itself, being able to filter items from the slice of itself. In the next section, you’ll learn how to use Python to remove items from a list using a condition. Want to learn how to get a file’s extension in Python? This tutorial will teach you how to use the os and pathlib libraries to do just that! Removing Items for a Python List Based on a ConditionIn this final section, you’ll learn how to remove items from a Python list conditionally. For example, you can remove non-numeric items from a list or only delete only odd numbers from a list. We’ll accomplish this using a Python list comprehension, which I cover off in detail here. List comprehensions allow us to create new lists by iterating over an iterable object, such as a list. Let’s see how we can use a list comprehension to remove all non-numeric items from our list: # Delete items from a list conditionally values = ['datagy', 1, 2, 3, 'datagy'] values = [item for item in values if str(item).isdigit()] print(values) # Returns: [1, 2, 3] Here we loop over our list and evaluate if the item is a numeric value. If it is, then it’s added into our list. If it’s not, then we don’t include it. Similarly, we can delete all odd items from a list using a Python list comprehension: # Delete items from a list conditionally values = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] values = [item for item in values if item % 2 == 0] print(values) # Returns: [2, 4, 6] In the example above, we use the modulus operator to evaluate if an item is even or odd. Any even item, when the modulus 2 is applied, will return a remainder of 0. Similarly, any odd value will return a value of 1. Because of this, we can use the list comprehension to delete any odd numbers from a list. Want to learn more about Python list comprehensions? Check out this in-depth tutorial that covers off everything you need to know, with hands-on examples. More of a visual learner, check out my YouTube tutorial here. ConclusionIn this tutorial, you learned how to use Python to delete or remove list items. You learned how to use the pop, del, remove methods to remove items from a list – including when to use which method and the pros and cons of each. Finally, you learned how to remove items from a list conditionally in Python, using Python list comprehensions. To learn more about the Python How does remove () work in Python?The remove() method removes the first occurrence of the element with the specified value.
How do I remove something from a list in Python?How to Remove an Element from a List Using the remove() Method in Python. To remove an element from a list using the remove() method, specify the value of that element and pass it as an argument to the method. remove() will search the list to find it and remove it.
How does list Remove work in Python?The remove() method takes a single element as an argument and removes it from the list. If the element doesn't exist, it throws ValueError: list.remove(x): x not in list exception.
How do you remove all occurrences of an item from a list in Python?Python3. Method 3 : Using remove() In this method, we iterate through each item in the list, and when we find a match for the item to be removed, we will call remove() function on the list.
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