[Tut] Python List remove()

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Python List remove()

This tutorial shows you everything you need to know to help you master the essential

Code:

remove()

method of the most fundamental container data type in the Python programming language.

Definition and Usage:

The

Code:

list.remove(element)

method removes the first occurrence of the

Code:

element

from an existing

Code:

list

. It does not, however, remove all occurrences of the element in the list!

Here’s a short example:

Code:

>>> lst = [1, 2, 99, 4, 99] >>> lst.remove(99) >>> lst [1, 2, 4, 99]

In the first line of the example, you create the list

Code:

lst

. You then remove the integer element 99 from the list—but only its first occurrence. The result is the list with only four elements

Code:

[1, 2, 4, 99]

.

Try it yourself:

https://repl.it/repls/PotableOnerlookedD...?lite=true

Syntax:

You can call this method on each list object in Python. Here’s the syntax:

Code:

list.remove(element)

Arguments:

Argument |
Description

Code:

element

|
Object you want to remove from the list. Only the first occurrence of the element is removed.

Return value:

The method

Code:

list.remove(element)

has return value

Code:

None

. It operates on an existing list and, therefore, doesn’t return a new list with the removed element

Video:

Code Puzzle:

Now you know the basics. Let’s deepen your understanding with a short code puzzle—can you solve it?

Code:

# Puzzle presidents = ['Obama', 'Trump', 'Washington'] p2 = presidents[:2] p2.remove('Trump') print(presidents) # What's the output of this code snippet?

You can check out the solution on the Finxter app.

Overview:

There are some alternative ways to remove elements from the list. See the overview table:

Method |
Description

Code:

lst.remove(x)

|
Remove an element from the list (by value)

Code:

lst.pop()

|
Remove an element from the list (by index) and return the element

Code:

lst.clear()

|
Remove all elements from the list

Code:

del lst[3]

|
Remove one or more elements from the list (by index or slice)

List comprehension |
Remove all elements that meet a certain condition

Next, you’ll dive into each of those methods to gain some deep understanding.

remove() — Remove An Element by Value

To remove an element from the list, use the

Code:

list.remove(element)

method you’ve already seen previously:

Code:

>>> lst = ["Alice", 3, "alice", "Ann", 42] >>> lst.remove("Ann") >>> lst ['Alice', 3, 'alice', 42]

Try it yourself:

https://repl.it/repls/CurlyIdioticChief?lite=true

The method goes from left to right and removes the first occurrence of the element that’s equal to the one to be removed.

Removed Element Does Not Exist

If you’re trying to remove element x from the list but x does not exist in the list, Python throws a Value error:

Code:

>>> lst = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann'] >>> lst.remove('Frank') Traceback (most recent call last): File "<pyshell#19>", line 1, in <module> lst.remove('Frank') ValueError: list.remove(x): x not in list

pop() — Remove An Element by Index

https://repl.it/repls/CurlyIdioticChief?lite=true

Per default, the

Code:

pop()

method removes the last element from the list and returns the element.

Code:

>>> lst = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann'] >>> lst.pop() 'Ann' >>> lst ['Alice', 'Bob']

But you can also define the optional index argument. In this case, you’ll remove the element at the given index—a little known Python secret!

Code:

>>> lst = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann'] >>> lst.pop(1) 'Bob' >>> lst ['Alice', 'Ann']

clear() — Remove All Elements

https://repl.it/repls/TightWiseTechnician?lite=true

The

Code:

clear()

method simply removes all elements from a given list object.

Code:

>>> lst = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann'] >>> lst.clear() >>> lst []

del — Remove Elements by Index or Slice

https://repl.it/repls/ClientsideForsaken...?lite=true

This trick is also relatively unknown among Python beginners:

• Use
  Code:

  del lst[index]
  to remove the element at index.
  
  
• Use
  Code:

  del lst[start:stop]
  to remove all elements in the slice.
  

Code:

>>> lst = list(range(10)) >>> lst [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] >>> del lst[5] >>> lst [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9] >>> del lst[:4] >>> lst [4, 6, 7, 8, 9]

Related blog articles:

• Check out my full slicing tutorial that makes you a master slicer in 15 minutes or so!
  

List Comprehension — Remove Elements Conditionally

https://repl.it/repls/FabulousMadEquation?lite=true

Okay, this is kind of cheating because this method does not really remove elements from a list object. It merely creates a new list with some elements that meet your condition.

List comprehension is a compact way of creating lists. The simple formula is [ expression + context ].

• Expression: What to do with each list element?
  
  
• Context: What list elements to select? It consists of an arbitrary number of for and if statements.
  

The example

Code:

[x for x in range(3)]

creates the list

Code:

[0, 1, 2]

.

You can also define a condition such as all odd values

Code:

x%2==1

in the context part by using an if condition. This leads us to a way to remove all elements that do not meet a certain condition in a given list.

Code:

>>> lst = list(range(10)) >>> lst_new = [x for x in lst if x%2] >>> lst_new [1, 3, 5, 7, 9]

While you iterate over the whole list

Code:

lst

, the condition

Code:

x%2

requires that the elements are odd.

Related blog articles:

• Check out my full list comprehension tutorial for maximal learning!
  

Python List remove() All

The

Code:

list.remove(x)

method only removes the first occurrence of element

Code:

x

from the list.

But what if you want to remove all occurrences of element

Code:

x

from a given list?

The answer is to use a simple loop:

Code:

lst = ['Ann', 'Ann', 'Ann', 'Alice', 'Ann', 'Bob'] x = 'Ann' while x in lst: lst.remove(x) print(lst) # ['Alice', 'Bob']

You simply call the

Code:

remove()

method again and again until element

Code:

x

is not in the list anymore.

Python List Remove Duplicates

https://repl.it/repls/GrandioseRemarkabl...?lite=true

How to remove all duplicates of a given value in the list?

The naive approach is to go over each element and check whether this element already exists in the list. If so, remove it. However, this takes a few lines of code.

A shorter and more concise way is to create a dictionary out of the elements in the list. Each list element becomes a new key to the dictionary. All elements that occur multiple times will be assigned to the same key. The dictionary contains only unique keys—there cannot be multiple equal keys.

As dictionary values, you simply take dummy values (per default).

Related blog articles:

• Check out my ultimate dictionary tutorial for maximal learning!
  

Then, you simply convert the dictionary back to a list throwing away the dummy values. As the dictionary keys stay in the same order, you don’t lose the order information of the original list elements.

Here’s the code:

Code:

>>> lst = [1, 1, 1, 3, 2, 5, 5, 2] >>> dic = dict.fromkeys(lst) >>> dic {1: None, 3: None, 2: None, 5: None} >>> duplicate_free = list(dic) >>> duplicate_free [1, 3, 2, 5]

Python List remove() If Exists

How to remove an element from a list—but only if it exists?

The problem is that if you try to remove an element from the list that doesn’t exist, Python throws a

Code:

Value Error

. You can avoid this by checking the membership of the element to be removed first:

Code:

>>> lst = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann'] >>> lst.remove('Frank') if 'Frank' in lst else None >>> lst ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann']

This makes use of the Python one-liner feature of conditional assignment (also called the ternary operator).

Related blog articles:

• Check out my ternary operator tutorial and boost your skills!
  

Python List remove() Thread Safe

Do you have a multiple threads that access your list at the same time? Then you need to be sure that the list operations (such as

Code:

remove()

) are actually thread safe.

In other words: can you call the

Code:

remove()

operation in two threads on the same list at the same time? (And can you be sure that the result is meaningful?)

The answer is yes (if you use the cPythonimplementation). The reason is Python’s global interpreter lock that ensures that a thread that’s currently working on it’s code will first finish its current basic Python operation as defined by the cPython implementation. Only if it terminates with this operation will the next thread be able to access the computational resource. This is ensured with a sophisticated locking scheme by the cPython implementation.

The only thing you need to know is that each basic operation in the cPython implementation is atomic. It’s executed wholly and at once before any other thread has the chance to run on the same virtual engine. Therefore, there are no race conditions. An example for such a race condition would be the following: the first thread reads a value from the list, the second threads overwrites the value, and the first thread overwrites the value again invalidating the second thread’s operation.

All cPython operations are thread-safe. But if you combine those operations into higher-level functions, those are not generally thread safe as they consist of many (possibly interleaving) operations.

Where to Go From Here?

The

Code:

list.remove(element)

method removes the first occurrence of

Code:

element

from the

Code:

list

.

You’ve learned the ins and outs of this important Python list method.

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