How to subtract from a list by the smallest value in the list?

Question

I am trying to completely empty the list one by one but there are always 2 integers left. Is it possible to do it without it leaving the 2 highest value integers ? If so how ?

list = [1,2,3,4,5]
print (list)
for x in list:
    while x in list:
        list.remove(min(list))


print(list)

Answer 1

There is an other way to empty a list . This way you don't need to use the for loop.

>>> lst = [1,2,3,4,5]
>>> del lst[:]
>>> lst
[]
>>> 

Or:

>>> lst = [1,2,3,4,5]
>>> lst[:] = []
>>> lst
[]
>>>

If you really want to empty the list one element at the time, which doesn't make much sense, you can use a while loop.

lst = [1,2,3,4,5]
x = len(lst)-1
c = 0
while c < x:
    for i in lst:
        lst.remove(i)
    c = c+1
print (lst)
>>> 
[]
>>>

Answer 2

I have a feeling there may be more to your question but to empty a list you can clear it using python3:

lst = [1,2,3,4,5]
lst.clear()

If you actually want each min and have to go one by one keep going until the list is empty:

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

while lst:
    i = min(lst)
    lst.remove(i)
    print(i, lst)

Answer 3

If you want to repeatedly remove the smallest element in this list and process it somehow, instead of just clearing the list, you can do this:

while list:  # short way of saying 'while the list is not empty'
    value = min(list)
    process(value)
    list.remove(value)

(this isn't the most efficient code as it iterates once to find the minimum and again to remove it, but it demonstrates the idea)

Your problem is that you're using a for loop on a list while modifying it which is bound to lead to problems, but there's really no need for a for loop at all.

Also don't use list as a variable name because it shadows the built-in name which is very useful for other purposes.

Answer 4

I think this is what you are trying to do:

lst = [1,2,3,4,5] 
while lst:          # while the list is not empty
   m = min(lst)
   while m in lst: # remove smallest element (multiple times if it occurs more than once)
       lst.remove(m)