How can I find same values in a list and group together a new list?
Question:
From this list:
N = [1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5]
I’m trying to create:
L = [[1],[2,2],[3,3,3],[4,4,4,4],[5,5,5,5,5]]
Any value which is found to be the same is grouped into it’s own sublist.
Here is my attempt so far, I’m thinking I should use a while loop?
global n
n = [1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5] #Sorted list
l = [] #Empty list to append values to
def compare(val):
""" This function receives index values
from the n list (n[0] etc) """
global valin
valin = val
global count
count = 0
for i in xrange(len(n)):
if valin == n[count]: # If the input value i.e. n[x] == n[iteration]
temp = valin, n[count]
l.append(temp) #append the values to a new list
count +=1
else:
count +=1
for x in xrange (len(n)):
compare(n[x]) #pass the n[x] to compare function
Answers:
You’re overcomplicating this.
What you want to do is: for each value, if it’s the same as the last value, just append it to the list of last values; otherwise, create a new list. You can translate that English directly to Python:
new_list = []
for value in old_list:
if new_list and new_list[-1][0] == value:
new_list[-1].append(value)
else:
new_list.append([value])
There are even simpler ways to do this if you’re willing to get a bit more abstract, e.g., by using the grouping functions in itertools. But this should be easy to understand.
If you really need to do this with a while loop, you can translate any for loop into a while loop like this:
for value in iterable:
do_stuff(value)
iterator = iter(iterable)
while True:
try:
value = next(iterator)
except StopIteration:
break
do_stuff(value)
Or, if you know the iterable is a sequence, you can use a slightly simpler while loop:
index = 0
while index < len(sequence):
value = sequence[index]
do_stuff(value)
index += 1
But both of these make your code less readable, less Pythonic, more complicated, less efficient, easier to get wrong, etc.
You can use itertools.groupby along with a list comprehension
>>> l = [1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5]
>>> [list(v) for k,v in itertools.groupby(l)]
[[1], [2, 2], [3, 3, 3], [4, 4, 4, 4], [5, 5, 5, 5, 5]]
This can be assigned to the variable L as in
L = [list(v) for k,v in itertools.groupby(l)]
Use itertools.groupby:
from itertools import groupby
N = [1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5]
print([list(j) for i, j in groupby(N)])
Output:
[[1], [2, 2], [3, 3, 3], [4, 4, 4, 4], [5, 5, 5, 5, 5]]
Side note: Prevent from using global variable when you don’t need to.
Another slightly different solution that doesn’t rely on itertools:
#!/usr/bin/env python
def group(items):
"""
groups a sorted list of integers into sublists based on the integer key
"""
if len(items) == 0:
return []
grouped_items = []
prev_item, rest_items = items[0], items[1:]
subgroup = [prev_item]
for item in rest_items:
if item != prev_item:
grouped_items.append(subgroup)
subgroup = []
subgroup.append(item)
prev_item = item
grouped_items.append(subgroup)
return grouped_items
print group([1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5])
# [[1], [2, 2], [3, 3, 3], [4, 4, 4, 4], [5, 5, 5, 5, 5]]
Someone mentions for N=[1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 1] it will get [[1], [2, 2], [3, 3, 3], [4, 4, 4, 4], [5, 5, 5, 5, 5], [1]]
In other words, when numbers of the list isn’t in order or it is a mess list, it’s not available.
So I have better answer to solve this problem.
from collections import Counter
N = [1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5]
C = Counter(N)
print [ [k,]*v for k,v in C.items()]
You can do that using numpy too:
import numpy as np
N = np.array([1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5])
counter = np.arange(1, np.alen(N))
L = np.split(N, counter[N[1:]!=N[:-1]])
The advantage of this method is when you have another list which is related to N and you want to split it in the same way.
From this list:
N = [1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5]
I’m trying to create:
L = [[1],[2,2],[3,3,3],[4,4,4,4],[5,5,5,5,5]]
Any value which is found to be the same is grouped into it’s own sublist.
Here is my attempt so far, I’m thinking I should use a while loop?
global n
n = [1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5] #Sorted list
l = [] #Empty list to append values to
def compare(val):
""" This function receives index values
from the n list (n[0] etc) """
global valin
valin = val
global count
count = 0
for i in xrange(len(n)):
if valin == n[count]: # If the input value i.e. n[x] == n[iteration]
temp = valin, n[count]
l.append(temp) #append the values to a new list
count +=1
else:
count +=1
for x in xrange (len(n)):
compare(n[x]) #pass the n[x] to compare function
You’re overcomplicating this.
What you want to do is: for each value, if it’s the same as the last value, just append it to the list of last values; otherwise, create a new list. You can translate that English directly to Python:
new_list = []
for value in old_list:
if new_list and new_list[-1][0] == value:
new_list[-1].append(value)
else:
new_list.append([value])
There are even simpler ways to do this if you’re willing to get a bit more abstract, e.g., by using the grouping functions in itertools. But this should be easy to understand.
If you really need to do this with a while loop, you can translate any for loop into a while loop like this:
for value in iterable:
do_stuff(value)
iterator = iter(iterable)
while True:
try:
value = next(iterator)
except StopIteration:
break
do_stuff(value)
Or, if you know the iterable is a sequence, you can use a slightly simpler while loop:
index = 0
while index < len(sequence):
value = sequence[index]
do_stuff(value)
index += 1
But both of these make your code less readable, less Pythonic, more complicated, less efficient, easier to get wrong, etc.
You can use itertools.groupby along with a list comprehension
>>> l = [1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5]
>>> [list(v) for k,v in itertools.groupby(l)]
[[1], [2, 2], [3, 3, 3], [4, 4, 4, 4], [5, 5, 5, 5, 5]]
This can be assigned to the variable L as in
L = [list(v) for k,v in itertools.groupby(l)]
Use itertools.groupby:
from itertools import groupby
N = [1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5]
print([list(j) for i, j in groupby(N)])
Output:
[[1], [2, 2], [3, 3, 3], [4, 4, 4, 4], [5, 5, 5, 5, 5]]
Side note: Prevent from using global variable when you don’t need to.
Another slightly different solution that doesn’t rely on itertools:
#!/usr/bin/env python
def group(items):
"""
groups a sorted list of integers into sublists based on the integer key
"""
if len(items) == 0:
return []
grouped_items = []
prev_item, rest_items = items[0], items[1:]
subgroup = [prev_item]
for item in rest_items:
if item != prev_item:
grouped_items.append(subgroup)
subgroup = []
subgroup.append(item)
prev_item = item
grouped_items.append(subgroup)
return grouped_items
print group([1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5])
# [[1], [2, 2], [3, 3, 3], [4, 4, 4, 4], [5, 5, 5, 5, 5]]
Someone mentions for N=[1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 1] it will get [[1], [2, 2], [3, 3, 3], [4, 4, 4, 4], [5, 5, 5, 5, 5], [1]]
In other words, when numbers of the list isn’t in order or it is a mess list, it’s not available.
So I have better answer to solve this problem.
from collections import Counter
N = [1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5]
C = Counter(N)
print [ [k,]*v for k,v in C.items()]
You can do that using numpy too:
import numpy as np
N = np.array([1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5])
counter = np.arange(1, np.alen(N))
L = np.split(N, counter[N[1:]!=N[:-1]])
The advantage of this method is when you have another list which is related to N and you want to split it in the same way.