Remove element from list when using enumerate() in python

Question

Object is a decoded json object that contains a list called items.

obj = json.loads(response.body_as_unicode())

for index, item in enumerate(obj[\'items\']):
         


        

Answer 1

Don't remove items from a list while iterating over it; iteration will skip items as the iteration index is not updated to account for elements removed.

Instead, rebuild the list minus the items you want removed, with a list comprehension with a filter:

obj['items'] = [item for item in obj['items'] if item['name']]

or create a copy of the list first to iterate over, so that removing won't alter iteration:

for item in obj['items'][:]:  # [:] creates a copy
   if not item['name']:
       obj['items'].remove(item)

You did create a copy, but then ignored that copy by looping over the list that you are deleting from still.