Easy Ways to Clean Up Your Lists: Removing Empty Strings and Whitespace
Lists are a fundamental data structure in Python, used to store a collection of items that can be later accessed and manipulated. Often, lists can contain empty strings or whitespace that make it harder to work with them.
Luckily, there are some simple techniques to remove these unwanted elements and ensure that your list contains only the data you need.
Removing Empty Strings
Empty strings are strings without any characters. They can appear in a list if there is a blank field or if the data was not input correctly.
Thankfully, empty strings are easy to remove from a list.
Using List Comprehension
List comprehension is a handy method in Python that allows you to create a new list by processing the elements of an existing one. You can use list comprehension to eliminate empty strings in just one line of code.
The syntax of list comprehension involves a for loop followed by an if statement. The for loop iterates through items in the original list, and the if statement filters out elements that do not fit a particular criterion.
To use list comprehension to remove empty strings, you need to add an if statement to the for loop that specifies that only non-empty strings should be included in the new list. Here is an example:
>>> my_list = ['cat', '', 'dog', '', 'bird', '']
>>> new_list = [element for element in my_list if element != '']
>>> print(new_list)
['cat', 'dog', 'bird']In this example, the expression between the square brackets creates a new list.
The for loop iterates through each element in my_list. The if statement checks if the current element is different from an empty string.
Only elements that are not empty strings are included in the new list.
Using filter() Function
The filter() function is another way to remove empty strings from a list. filter() allows you to apply a function to every element in a list.
If the function returns true, the element is kept. Otherwise, it is discarded.
To use filter() to remove empty strings, use str.strip() as the function that is applied to every element. str.strip() removes leading and trailing whitespace from a string.
If the resulting string is empty, the filter() function will discard it. Here is an example:
>>> my_list = ['cat', '', 'dog', '', 'bird', '']
>>> new_list = list(filter(str.strip, my_list))
>>> print(new_list)
['cat', 'dog', 'bird']In this example, the filter() function only keeps elements that are not empty strings after being stripped of any leading or trailing whitespace.
Since an empty string does not contain any characters, it will be evaluated as False and will be discarded.
Excluding Whitespace Strings
Sometimes, a list may contain elements that are whitespace strings. These are strings that contain only spaces, tabs, or other whitespace characters.
Whitespace strings can be challenging to detect because they are not empty strings, even though they do not contain any visible characters.
Using List Comprehension
To exclude whitespace strings from a list, you can use the strip() method to remove all whitespace characters from each element before checking if it is empty. This approach requires two chained if statements inside the list comprehension.
Here is an example:
>>> my_list = ['cat', ' ', 'dog', 'n', 'bird', 't']
>>> new_list = [element for element in my_list if element.strip()]
>>> print(new_list)
['cat', 'dog', 'bird']In this example, the first if statement checks if the stripped element is not an empty string. If the stripped element is not empty, it will be included in the new list.
By specifying element.strip() as the if statement’s condition, we are telling Python to remove all whitespace characters from the element before evaluating its truthfulness.
Conclusion
Cleaning up lists in Python is a crucial skill for data scientists, programmers, and anyone who works with data. Empty strings and whitespace strings can add unnecessary noise to your lists, making them harder to analyze.
By using list comprehension or the filter() function, you can remove empty strings from your lists quickly. By using additional if statements, you can also remove whitespace strings from your lists.
Happy cleaning!
Applying a Function to a Sequence: filter() Function
The filter() function is a built-in Python function that can be used to create a new sequence from an existing one by applying a function to each element in the sequence. The function is used to filter out certain elements of the original sequence based on a criterion specified by the programmer.
The filter() function takes two arguments: a function and a sequence. The function specifies the criteria used to filter out unwanted elements from the sequence.
The sequence is the collection of elements that need to be filtered. A common use case for the filter() function is to remove empty or whitespace strings from a list, as described in the previous section.
Here is an example:
my_list = ["apple", "", "banana", " ", "cherry"]
filtered_list = list(filter(str.strip, my_list))
print(filtered_list)
# Output: ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]In this example, the function passed to the filter() function is str.strip, which is called on every element in the sequence (my_list). The str.strip function is used to remove all whitespace characters from each element before checking if it is empty.
Since an empty string evaluates to False, it is filtered out of the sequence. The output produced is a new list without any empty or whitespace strings.
Choosing a Preferred Method: Personal Preference
When it comes to choosing between list comprehension and the filter() function, personal preference plays a large role. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, but ultimately the choice should be based on what works best for your specific use case.
List comprehension is a concise and readable way to filter out elements from a list. It also allows for more nuanced filtering with additional if statements, as we saw in the section on excluding whitespace strings.
However, it can be slow for large lists since it creates a new list in memory. The filter() function, on the other hand, is faster than list comprehension since it does not create a new list in memory.
It also allows you to be more expressive in your filtering criteria by using custom functions. However, it can be less readable than list comprehension since it requires passing a function to the filter() function.
In choosing between these two methods, consider the size of your list and the complexity of your filtering criteria. If your list is small and your filtering criteria are straightforward, list comprehension may be the better choice.
Conversely, if your list is large or your filtering criteria requires custom functions, the filter() function is a better option.
Conclusion
Python offers multiple techniques for filtering out unwanted elements from a sequence. Both list comprehension and the filter() function are effective methods for this task, and the choice between the two ultimately comes down to personal preference and the specifics of your use case.
Regardless of which method you choose, the ability to filter out unwanted data is an essential skill for any Python programmer. By learning how to use list comprehension and the filter() function, you can ensure that your sequences contain only the data you need, leading to cleaner and more efficient code.
In summary, removing empty strings and whitespace from Python lists is a crucial skill for any programmer or data scientist. We discussed two effective methods for this task: list comprehension and the filter() function.
List comprehension is a concise and readable method but can be slow for large lists. The filter() function is faster and more expressive but can be less readable.
Ultimately, the method of choice depends on personal preference and the specifics of your use case. By mastering these techniques, you can ensure your code is efficient, clean, and easy to work with.