Python: Removing list element while iterating over list [duplicate]

Answer 1

To meet these criteria: modify original list in situ, no list copies, only one pass, works, a traditional solution is to iterate backwards:

for i in xrange(len(somelist) - 1, -1, -1):
    element = somelist[i]
    do_action(element)
    if check(element):
        del somelist[i]

Bonus: Doesn't do len(somelist) on each iteration. Works on any version of Python (at least as far back as 1.5.2) ... s/xrange/range/ for 3.X.

Update: If you want to iterate forwards, it's possible, just trickier and uglier:

i = 0
n = len(somelist)
while i < n:
    element = somelist[i]
    do_action(element)
    if check(element):
        del somelist[i]
        n = n - 1
    else:
        i = i + 1