Weeken with python (part 3)

In this serial, I write about what I learned about Python over the weekend. This week, I talked about (1) how to write a function to find an element in a list , (2) remove function of list, and (3) the different between __getattr__ and __getattribute__.

How to write a function to find an element in a list

I have a list, and a condition, what is the best way to write code to list in list the first element which satisfy condition

Currently, I not really happy with this solution

res = None
for x in alist:
    if condition(x):
        res = x
        break

What I really want is write a 1 or 2 line of code which easy to understand and run fast to do this task Some solutions using filter and find can write in 1-2 line of code, but it must scan all list before return the result.

Strange behavior of remove in list

I have a list, and a condition, now i want to write a code to remove all element in list satify this condition

I found 2 solutions in here

Solution 1: + dont use list.remove() - it cost you O(N) + when want to delete element in array, traversal it in reverse ordering

for i in xrange(len(alist), -1, -1):
    if condition(alist[i]): del alist[i]

Solution 2: Instead of removing element in list, make a new list with condition This solution is easy to read, but if the list input is large, it cost memory

alist = [x for x in alist if condition(x)]

Firstly, i try this code

for x in alist:
    if condition(x):
        alist.remove(x)

But this code will not work.

For example, we have a = [[1, 2], [1, 3], [1], [2], [3]]. We want to remove all element of a which have 2 elements.

When traverse like for x in a, the first element is a[0] will be removed. But after a[0] be removed, a = [[1, 3], [1], [2], [3]]. So now, a[1] will be [1] but not [1, 3].

That the problem. That ’s why in solution 1, I travesel in reverse order to prevent it

Diffirent between __getattr__ and __getattribute__

The main key point is + __getattr__ was only call if object access is not found in usually space (with new-style class is dict) + __getattribute__ was call before any other method when object try to access a attribute

>>> class Person(object):
        def __init__(self, name, age):
            self.name = name
            self.age = age

        def __getattribute__(self, key):
            print "get attribute '%s'" % key
            return object.__getattribute__(self, key)

        def __getattr__(self, key):
            print "get attr '%s'" % key
            return None
>>> a = Person('kiennt', 24)
>>> a.name
get attribute 'name'
kiennt
>>> a.programming_language
get attribute 'programming_language'
get attr 'programming_language'
None