Sometimes, while working with python, we can have a problem in which we need to filter out certain empty data. These can be none, empty string, etc. This can have applications in many domains. Let us discuss certain ways in which the removal of empty lists can be performed.
Method 1: Using list comprehension: This is one of the ways in which this problem can be solved. In this, we iterate through the list and don’t include the list which is empty.
Example
# Python3 code to Demonstrate Remove empty List # from List using list comprehension # Initializing list test_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
# printing original list print ( "The original list is : " + str (test_list))
# Remove empty List from List # using list comprehension res = [ele for ele in test_list if ele ! = []]
# printing result print ( "List after empty list removal : " + str (res))
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The original list is : [5, 6, [], 3, [], [], 9] List after empty list removal : [5, 6, 3, 9]
Time Complexity: O(n)
Auxiliary Space: O(1)
Method 2: Using filter() method
This is yet another way in which this task can be performed. In this, we filter None values. The none values include empty lists as well and hence these get removed.
Example
# Python3 Code to Demonstrate Remove empty List # from List using filter() Method # Initializing list by custom values test_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
# Printing original list print ( "The original list is : " + str (test_list))
# Removing empty List from List # using filter() method res = list ( filter ( None , test_list))
# Printing the resultant list print ( "List after empty list removal : " + str (res))
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The original list is : [5, 6, [], 3, [], [], 9] List after empty list removal : [5, 6, 3, 9]
Time Complexity: O(n)
Auxiliary Space: O(1)
Method 3: Using function definition
# Python Code to Remove empty List from List def empty_list_remove(input_list):
new_list = []
for ele in input_list:
if ele:
new_list.append(ele)
return new_list
# input list values input_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
# print initial list values print (f "The original list is : {input_list}" )
# function-call & print values print (f "List after empty list removal : {empty_list_remove(input_list)}" )
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The original list is : [5, 6, [], 3, [], [], 9] List after empty list removal : [5, 6, 3, 9]
Above defined method(Method 3) is best optimized method among all three.
Method 4: Using len() and type() methods.If the length is zero then the list is empty.
# Python3 code to Demonstrate Remove empty List # Initializing list test_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
# printing original list print ( "The original list is : " + str (test_list))
new_list = []
# Remove empty List from List for i in test_list:
x = str ( type (i))
if (x.find( 'list' )! = - 1 ):
if ( len (i)! = 0 ):
new_list.append(i)
else :
new_list.append(i)
# printing result print ( "List after empty list removal : " + str (new_list))
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The original list is : [5, 6, [], 3, [], [], 9] List after empty list removal : [5, 6, 3, 9]
Method 5: Using remove() method
# Python3 code to Demonstrate Remove empty List # Initializing list test_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
# printing original list print ( "The original list is : " + str (test_list))
# Remove empty List from List while [] in test_list :
test_list.remove([])
# printing result print ( "List after empty list removal : " + str (test_list))
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The original list is : [5, 6, [], 3, [], [], 9] List after empty list removal : [5, 6, 3, 9]
Time Complexity: O(n), where n is length of list
Auxiliary Space: O(n)
Method 6 : Using list(),map(),join() and replace() methods
# Python3 code to Demonstrate Remove empty List # Initializing list test_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
# printing original list print ( "The original list is : " + str (test_list))
x = list ( map ( str ,test_list))
y = "".join(x)
y = y.replace( "[]" ,"")
y = list ( map ( int ,y))
# printing result print ( "List after empty list removal : " + str (y))
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The original list is : [5, 6, [], 3, [], [], 9] List after empty list removal : [5, 6, 3, 9]
Method: Using enumerate function
test_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
res = [ele for i,ele in enumerate (test_list) if ele ! = []]
print (res)
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[5, 6, 3, 9]
Method: Using filter function
# Python3 code to Demonstrate Remove empty List # Initializing list test_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
# printing original list print ( "The original list is : " + str (test_list))
# Remove empty List from List res = filter ( None , test_list)
# printing result print ( "List after empty list removal : " ,res)
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The original list is : [5, 6, [], 3, [], [], 9] ('List after empty list removal : ', [5, 6, 3, 9])
Method: Using lambda function
# Python3 Code to Demonstrate Remove empty List # from List using lambda function # Initializing list by custom values test_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
# Printing original list print ( "The original list is : " + str (test_list))
# Removing empty List from List # using lambda function res = list ( filter ( lambda x: x ! = [], test_list))
# Printing the resultant list print ( "List after empty list removal : " + str (res))
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The original list is : [5, 6, [], 3, [], [], 9] List after empty list removal : [5, 6, 3, 9]
Method: Using Recursion method
# Python3 code to Demonstrate Remove empty List #defining recursive function to remove empty list def remove_empty(start,oldlist,newlist):
if start = = len (oldlist): #base condition
return newlist
if oldlist[start] = = []: #checking the element is empty list or not
pass
else :
newlist.append(oldlist[start]) #appending non empty list element to newlist
return remove_empty(start + 1 ,oldlist,newlist) #recursive function call
test_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
# printing original list print ( "The original list is : " + str (test_list))
result = remove_empty( 0 ,test_list,[])
# printing result print ( "List after empty list removal : " ,result)
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The original list is : [5, 6, [], 3, [], [], 9] List after empty list removal : [5, 6, 3, 9]
Method: Using itertools.filterfalse()
# Python3 Code to Demonstrate Remove empty List # from List import itertools
# Initializing list by custom values test_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
# Printing original list print ( "The original list is : " + str (test_list))
# Removing empty List from List # using lambda function res = list (itertools.filterfalse( lambda x: x = = [], test_list))
# Printing the resultant list print ( "List after empty list removal : " + str (res))
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The original list is : [5, 6, [], 3, [], [], 9] List after empty list removal : [5, 6, 3, 9]
Time Complexity: O(N)
Auxiliary Space: O(N)
Method: Using the map() function
Use the map function to iterate through the original list and remove empty lists.
# Initializing list test_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
# printing original list print ( "The original list is : " + str (test_list))
# Remove empty List from List # using map() function res = list ( map ( lambda x: x if x ! = [] else None , test_list))
res = [x for x in res if x ! = None ]
# printing result print ( "List after empty list removal : " + str (res))
#This code is contributed by Vinay Pinjala. |
The original list is : [5, 6, [], 3, [], [], 9] List after empty list removal : [5, 6, 3, 9]
Time Complexity: O(N)
Auxiliary Space: O(N)
Using re module
import re
# input list values input_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
# print initial list values print (f "The original list is : {input_list}" )
# removing empty list from list res = list ( filter ( None , [x for x in input_list if not re.match( '\[\]' , str (x))]))
# print resultant list print (f "List after empty list removal : {res}" )
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The original list is : [5, 6, [], 3, [], [], 9] List after empty list removal : [5, 6, 3, 9]
Time Complexity: O(N)
Auxiliary Space: O(N)
Method: Using the pop()
# Define the test list test_list = [ 5 , 6 , [], 3 , [], [], 9 ]
# Print the original list print ( "The original list is : " + str (test_list))
# Counter variable 'i' to keep track of the current index i = 0
# While loop to go through all elements of the list while i < len (test_list):
# If the current element is an empty list, remove it from the list
if test_list[i] = = []:
test_list.pop(i)
# Else, increment the counter variable
else :
i + = 1
# Reassign the result to the original list after removing all empty lists res = test_list
# Print the result print ( "List after empty list removal : " + str (res))
#This code is contributed by Jyothi pinjala. |
The original list is : [5, 6, [], 3, [], [], 9] List after empty list removal : [5, 6, 3, 9]
Time Complexity: O(N)
Auxiliary Space: O(1)