delete lines

[Peter Otten]

antar2 wrote:

> I am new in python and I have the following problem:
> 
> Suppose I have a list with words of which I want to remove each time
> the words in the lines below item1 and above item2:

> f = re.compile("item\[1\]\:")
> g = re.compile("item\[2\]\:")
> for i, line in enumerate(list1):
>                 f_match = f.search(line)
>                 g_match = g.search(line)
>                 if f_match:
>                         if g_match:
>                                 if list1[i] > f_match:
>                                         if list1[i] < g_match:
>                                                 del list1[i]
> 
> 
> But this does not work
> 
> If someone can help me, thanks!

I see two problems with your code: 

- You are altering the list while you iterate over it. Don't do that, it'll
cause Python to skip items, and the result is usually a mess. Make a new
list instead.

- You don't keep track of whether you are between "item1" and "item2". A
simple flag will help here.

A working example:

inlist = """item1
a
b
item2
c
d
item3
e
f
item4
g
h
item1
i
j
item2
k
l
item3
m
n
item4
o
p
""".splitlines()

print inlist

outlist = []
between = False

for item in inlist:
    if between:
      if item == "item2":
          between = False
          outlist.append(item)
    else:
      outlist.append(item)
      if item == "item1":
        between = True

print outlist

Peter