What is the pythonic way to detect the last element in a python 'for' loop?

Question

I'd like to know the best way (more compact and "pythonic" way) to do a special treatment for the last element in a for loop. There is a piece of code that should be called only between elements, being suppressed in the last one. Here is how I currently do it:

for i, data in enumerate(data_list):
    code_that_is_done_for_every_element
    code_that_is_done_for_every_element
    code_that_is_done_for_every_element

    if i != len(data_list) - 1:
        code_that_is_done_between_elements
        code_that_is_done_between_elements
        code_that_is_done_between_elements

Is there any better way?

Note: I don't want to make it with hacks such as using reduce ;)

Answer 1

Most of the times it is easier (and cheaper) to make the first iteration the special case instead of the last one:

first = True
for data in data_list:
    if first:
        first = False
    else:
        between_items()

    item()

This will work for any iterable, even for those that have no len():

file = open('/path/to/file')
for line in file:
    process_line(line)

    # No way of telling if this is the last line!

Apart from that, I don't think there is a generally superior solution as it depends on what you are trying to do. For example, if you are building a string from a list, it's naturally better to use str.join() than using a for loop “with special case”.

---

I liked your way to do it, only if it were more compact... ;)

Using the same principle but more compact:

for i, line in enumerate(data_list):
    if i > 0:
        between_items()
    item()

Looks familiar, doesn't it? :)

Answer 2

If you're simply looking to modify the last element in data_list then you can simply use the notation:

L[-1]

However, it looks like you're doing more than that. There is nothing really wrong with your way. I even took a quick glance at some Django code for their template tags and they do basically what you're doing.

Answer 3

Is there no possibility to iterate over all-but the last element, and treat the last one outside of the loop? After all, a loop is created to do something similar to all elements you loop over; if one element needs something special, it shouldn't be in the loop.

(see also this question: does-the-last-element-in-a-loop-deserve-a-separate-treatment)

EDIT: since the question is more about the "in between", either the first element is the special one in that it has no predecessor, or the last element is special in that it has no successor.

Answer 4

There is nothing wrong with your way, unless you will have 100 000 loops and wants save 100 000 "if" statements. In that case, you can go that way :

iterable = [1,2,3] # Your date
iterator = iter(iterable) # get the data iterator

try :   # wrap all in a try / except
    while 1 : 
        item = iterator.next() 
        print item # put the "for loop" code here
except StopIteration, e : # make the process on the last element here
    print item

Outputs :

1
2
3
3

But really, in your case I feel like it's overkill.

In any case, you will probably be luckier with slicing :

for item in iterable[:-1] :
    print item
print "last :", iterable[-1]

#outputs
1
2
last : 3

or just :

for item in iterable :
    print item
print iterable[-1]

#outputs
1
2
3
last : 3

Eventually, a KISS way to do you stuff, and that would work with any iterable, including the ones without __len__ :

item = ''
for item in iterable :
    print item
print item

Ouputs:

1
2
3
3

If feel like I would do it that way, seems simple to me.

Answer 5

You can use a sliding window over the input data to get a peek at the next value and use a sentinel to detect the last value. This works on any iterable, so you don't need to know the length beforehand. The pairwise implementation is from itertools recipes.

from itertools import tee, izip, chain

def pairwise(seq):
    a,b = tee(seq)
    next(b, None)
    return izip(a,b)

def annotated_last(seq):
    """Returns an iterable of pairs of input item and a boolean that show if
    the current item is the last item in the sequence."""
    MISSING = object()
    for current_item, next_item in pairwise(chain(seq, [MISSING])):
        yield current_item, next_item is MISSING:

for item, is_last_item in annotated_last(data_list):
    if is_last_item:
        # current item is the last item

Answer 6

The 'code between' is an example of the Head-Tail pattern.

You have an item, which is followed by a sequence of ( between, item ) pairs. You can also view this as a sequence of (item, between) pairs followed by an item. It's generally simpler to take the first element as special and all the others as the "standard" case.

Further, to avoid repeating code, you have to provide a function or other object to contain the code you don't want to repeat. Embedding an if statement in a loop which is always false except one time is kind of silly.

def item_processing( item ):
    # *the common processing*

head_tail_iter = iter( someSequence )
head = head_tail_iter.next()
item_processing( head )
for item in head_tail_iter:
    # *the between processing*
    item_processing( item )

This is more reliable because it's slightly easier to prove, It doesn't create an extra data structure (i.e., a copy of a list) and doesn't require a lot of wasted execution of an if condition which is always false except once.

Answer 7

Assuming input as an iterator, here's a way using tee and izip from itertools:

from itertools import tee, izip
items, between = tee(input_iterator, 2)  # Input must be an iterator.
first = items.next()
do_to_every_item(first)  # All "do to every" operations done to first item go here.
for i, b in izip(items, between):
    do_between_items(b)  # All "between" operations go here.
    do_to_every_item(i)  # All "do to every" operations go here.

Demo:

>>> def do_every(x): print "E", x
...
>>> def do_between(x): print "B", x
...
>>> test_input = iter(range(5))
>>>
>>> from itertools import tee, izip
>>>
>>> items, between = tee(test_input, 2)
>>> first = items.next()
>>> do_every(first)
E 0
>>> for i,b in izip(items, between):
...     do_between(b)
...     do_every(i)
...
B 0
E 1
B 1
E 2
B 2
E 3
B 3
E 4
>>>

Answer 8

This is similar to Ants Aasma's approach but without using the itertools module. It's also a lagging iterator which looks-ahead a single element in the iterator stream:

def last_iter(it):
    # Ensure it's an iterator and get the first field
    it = iter(it)
    prev = next(it)
    for item in it:
        # Lag by one item so I know I'm not at the end
        yield 0, prev
        prev = item
    # Last item
    yield 1, prev

def test(data):
    result = list(last_iter(data))
    if not result:
        return
    if len(result) > 1:
        assert set(x[0] for x in result[:-1]) == set([0]), result
    assert result[-1][0] == 1

test([])
test([1])
test([1, 2])
test(range(5))
test(xrange(4))

for is_last, item in last_iter("Hi!"):
    print is_last, item