Difference Between Two Lists with Duplicates in Python

Question

I have two lists that contain many of the same items, including duplicate items. I want to check which items in the first list are not in the second list. For example, I mig

Answer 1

To take into account both duplicates and the order of elements:

from collections import Counter

def list_difference(a, b):
    count = Counter(a) # count items in a
    count.subtract(b)  # subtract items that are in b
    diff = []
    for x in a:
        if count[x] > 0:
           count[x] -= 1
           diff.append(x)
    return diff

Example

print(list_difference("z y z x v x y x u".split(), "x y z w z".split()))
# -> ['y', 'x', 'v', 'x', 'u']

Python 2.5 version:

from collections import defaultdict 

def list_difference25(a, b):
    # count items in a
    count = defaultdict(int) # item -> number of occurrences
    for x in a:
        count[x] += 1

    # subtract items that are in b
    for x in b: 
        count[x] -= 1

    diff = []
    for x in a:
        if count[x] > 0:
           count[x] -= 1
           diff.append(x)
    return diff