How to Skip a Value in a List in Python

Skipping a value in a list means we want to exclude certain items while iterating. There are many ways to skip a value in Python List.

Using continue is the simplest way to skip a value in iteration, without modifying the original list.

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

# iterating the list
for i in a:
    if i == 5:
        continue  # Skip the value 5
    print(i)
    
 # Output: 1 2 3 4

Other methods which we can use to skip a value in a list is :

Using List Comprehension

You can use list comprehension to skip the value while iterating. It will create a few filtered list, excluding skipped values. This method can be useful for immutable operations where the original iterable should not be modified.

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

# will skip 5
a1 = [val for val in a if val != 5]
print(a1)

[1, 2, 3, 4]

Using filter() function

The filter() function can also help us skip values. It works by applying a condition to each element of the list and keeping only the elements that meet the condition.

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

# Value to skip
skip_value = 3

# Use filter to create a new list
b = list(filter(lambda item: item != skip_value, a))

print(b)

[1, 2, 4, 5]

In this example, filter(lambda item: item != skip_value, lst) creates an iterator that skips the value 3. The lambda function checks each item in the list, and filter() keeps only those that don't match 3. We then convert it back to a list using list().

Using itertools.filterfalse()

Python’s itertools module provides the filterfalse() function. It filters out values that do not meet the given condition.

import itertools

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

# Value to skip
skip_value = 3

# Use filterfalse to exclude the value
a1 = list(itertools.filterfalse(lambda x: x == skip_value, a))

print(a1)

[1, 2, 4, 5]

itertools.filterfalse() returns only the items that do not match the condition (x == skip_value). It’s a powerful tool for more complex filtering tasks.