Python: Adding element to list while iterating

Question

I know that it is not allowed to remove elements while iterating a list, but is it allowed to add elements to a python list while iterating. Here is an example:

Answer 1

You could use the islice from itertools to create an iterator over a smaller portion of the list. Then you can append entries to the list without impacting the items you're iterating over:

islice(myarr, 0, len(myarr)-1)

Even better, you don't even have to iterate over all the elements. You can increment a step size.

Answer 2

You can do this.

bonus_rows = []
for a in myarr:
  if somecond(a):
      bonus_rows.append(newObj())
myarr.extend( bonus_rows )

Answer 3

make copy of your original list, iterate over it, see the modified code below

for a in myarr[:]:
      if somecond(a):
          myarr.append(newObj())

Answer 4

Why don't you just do it the idiomatic C way? This ought to be bullet-proof, but it won't be fast. I'm pretty sure indexing into a list in Python walks the linked list, so this is a "Shlemiel the Painter" algorithm. But I tend not to worry about optimization until it becomes clear that a particular section of code is really a problem. First make it work; then worry about making it fast, if necessary.

If you want to iterate over all the elements:

i = 0  
while i < len(some_list):  
  more_elements = do_something_with(some_list[i])  
  some_list.extend(more_elements)  
  i += 1  

If you only want to iterate over the elements that were originally in the list:

i = 0  
original_len = len(some_list)  
while i < original_len:  
  more_elements = do_something_with(some_list[i])  
  some_list.extend(more_elements)  
  i += 1

Answer 5

I had a similar problem today. I had a list of items that needed checking; if the objects passed the check, they were added to a result list. If they didn't pass, I changed them a bit and if they might still work (size > 0 after the change), I'd add them on to the back of the list for rechecking.

I went for a solution like

items = [...what I want to check...]
result = []
while items:
    recheck_items = []
    for item in items:
        if check(item):
            result.append(item)
        else:
            item = change(item)  # Note that this always lowers the integer size(),
                                 # so no danger of an infinite loop
            if item.size() > 0:
                recheck_items.append(item)
    items = recheck_items  # Let the loop restart with these, if any

My list is effectively a queue, should probably have used some sort of queue. But my lists are small (like 10 items) and this works too.

Answer 6

You can use an index and a while loop instead of a for loop if you want the loop to also loop over the elements that is added to the list during the loop:

i = 0
while i < len(myarr):
    a = myarr[i];
    i = i + 1;
    if somecond(a):
        myarr.append(newObj())