list.remove(): bug ??

[Andrew Wilkinson]

Mathieu Malaterre wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> here is a very simple script:
> 
> liste = ['foo1' , 'foo2', 'foo3', 'foo4', 'foo5' ]
> for i in liste:
>    if i == 'foo2':
>      liste.remove( i )
>    else:
>      print i
> 
> 
> But the result is:
> 
> foo1
> foo4
> foo5
> 
> How should I do to still print 'foo3' ??
> 
> thanks a lot,
> mathieu

The problem is that you're modifying the list that you're iterating over.
The simplest method to correct this is to take a copy of the list and
iterate over it instead of the actual list.

liste = ['foo1' , 'foo2', 'foo3', 'foo4', 'foo5' ]
for i in liste[:]:
  if i == 'foo2':
    liste.remove( i )
  else:
    print i

The above code works as expected. I don't see this as a bug, although its
perhaps not as intuitive as you would expect from Python.

Hope this help,
Andrew Wilkinson