On 28/03/13 15:25, Wolfgang Maier wrote:
Dear all, with
a=list(range(1,11))

why (in Python 2.7 and 3.3) is this explicit for loop working:
for i in a[:-1]:
     a.pop() and a

giving:
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
[1, 2, 3, 4]
[1, 2, 3]
[1, 2]
[1]

but the equivalent comprehension failing:
[a.pop() and a for i in a[:-1]]

giving:
[[1], [1], [1], [1], [1], [1], [1], [1], [1]]

???
Especially, since these two things *do* work as expected:
[a.pop() and a[:] for i in a[:-1]]
[a.pop() and print(a) for i in a[:-1]] # Python 3 only

Thanks for your help,
Wolfgang


With the for loop the list is printed each time you pop an element. With the list comprehension all but one of the elements are popped before the string representation of the resulting list (containing several references to a) is printed.

The two list comprehensions that you say "work" behave differently because the first contains copies of a (which are unaffected by subsequent pops), and the second because (I imagine) it does something similar to,

[a.pop() and repr(a) for i in a[:-1]]

on 2.7 (I haven't migrated to 3 yet). i.e. The list contains a representation of a after each element is popped.

Duncan
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