How to remove substrings from a python list

Question

Is there any list comprehension technique to get the below-desired result in a better way

a = ['hello', 'world', 'hello world', 'hello world how are', 'hello india']

final = set()
for i in a:
    for j in [x for x in a if x != i]:
        if i in j:
            final.add(i)
list(set(a)^final)

You could put a break inside the if - no point adding any item to final more than once. — jasonharper
– jasonharper, Commented Nov 5, 2019 at 13:43
This is a highly rated question, so I presume I’m the only dumb person here, but... Please find a way to indicate what it is you want with a question, rather than having us puzzle it out from your code. That could be as simple as just printing the desired output, since you seem to be happy with the result, just not with the method. — JL Peyret
– JL Peyret, Commented Nov 5, 2019 at 17:14

Michael Butscher · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-05 13:50:53Z

4

Shorter but not necessarily better:

print([x for x in a if not any(x in j for j in a if x != j)])

With removing of duplicates in the final list (resembles behavior from question):

print(list(set(x for x in a if not any(x in j for j in a if x != j))))

edited Nov 5, 2019 at 13:50

answered Nov 5, 2019 at 13:41

Michael Butscher

11k4 gold badges28 silver badges28 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

kuro Over a year ago

your code retains duplicate in output if present in the initial list while OP's solution doesn't do that

Artog Over a year ago

you can also use filter, which is basically the same: list(filter(not any(element in other and element != other for other in a), set(a)))

zipa · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-05 14:01:46Z

2

Another approach:

set([i for i in a if not any(set(i) < set(j) for j in a)])

answered Nov 5, 2019 at 14:01

zipa

28k6 gold badges45 silver badges62 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to remove substrings from a python list

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related