Python idiom to return first item or None

Question

I\'m sure there\'s a simpler way of doing this that\'s just not occurring to me.

I\'m calling a bunch of methods that return a list. The list may be empty. If the

Answer 1

def head(iterable):
    try:
        return iter(iterable).next()
    except StopIteration:
        return None

print head(xrange(42, 1000)  # 42
print head([])               # None

BTW: I'd rework your general program flow into something like this:

lists = [
    ["first", "list"],
    ["second", "list"],
    ["third", "list"]
]

def do_something(element):
    if not element:
        return
    else:
        # do something
        pass

for li in lists:
    do_something(head(li))

(Avoiding repetition whenever possible)