Filter a Python list by predicate

by

You can use the filter method:

>>> lst = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> filter(lambda x: x % 2 == 0, lst)
[2, 4]

or a list comprehension:

>>> lst = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> [x for x in lst if x %2 == 0]
[2, 4]

to find a single element, you could try:

>>> next(x for x in lst if x % 2 == 0)
2

Though that would throw an exception if nothing matches, so you’d probably want to wrap it in a try/catch. The () brackets make this a generator expression rather than a list comprehension.

Personally though I’d just use the regular filter/comprehension and take the first element (if there is one).

These raise an exception if nothing is found

filter(lambda x: x % 2 == 0, lst)[0]
[x for x in lst if x %2 == 0][0]

These return empty lists

filter(lambda x: x % 2 == 0, lst)[:1]
[x for x in lst if x %2 == 0][:1]

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