Comparing two lists with specific values to read

Question

I have two lists

list1 = ['01:15', 'abc', '01:15', 'def', '01:45', 'ghi' ]
list2 = ['01:15', 'abc', '01:15', 'uvz', '01:45', 'ghi' ]

and when I loop through the list

list_difference = []
for item in list1:
    if item not in list2:
        list_difference.append(item)

and I managed to get the difference, but I need time as well because it is a separate item and 'uvz' does not mean to me anything in the list with a few thousand entries. I tried to convert it to the dictionary, but it overwrites with the last key:value {'01:15' : 'def'}.

Maybe relevant: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3462143/get-difference-between-two-lists — nonamorando, Feb 25 '21 at 01:06
If I understand correctly, the lists are pairs of timestamp-event. And you want to print both the events that are in the first list and not the second, and the timestamp associated with them? — Reti43, Feb 25 '21 at 01:08
Convert it to a list of tuples `[('01:15', 'abc'), ('01:15', 'def'), ...]` — Barmar, Feb 25 '21 at 01:10

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 25 '21 at 01:13

2

Convert the two lists to sets of tuples, then use the set difference operator.

set1 = set((list1[i], list1[i+1]) for i in range(0, len(list1), 2))
set2 = set((list2[i], list2[i+1]) for i in range(0, len(list2), 2))
list_difference = list(set1 - set2)

answered Feb 25 '21 at 01:13

Barmar

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 25 '21 at 01:11

1

reformat your data, then do whatever you have done before

list1=list(zip(list1[::2],list1[1::2]))
list2=list(zip(list2[::2],list2[1::2]))

answered Feb 25 '21 at 01:11

Bing Wang

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Comparing two lists with specific values to read

2 Answers2