Python Remove Empty Strings from List

How to remove empty strings from a list in Python? You can use various methods of Python to remove empty strings from a list. Removing empty strings from a list, the resulting list will exclude the empty strings. The empty string("") represents a string with no characters.

You can remove empty strings from the list using many ways, for example, by using the remove(), filter(), lambda, list comprehension, enumerate(), for loop, len(), join() + split(), functools.reduce(), itertools.filterfalse(), and filter() with custom functions. In this article, I will explain how to remove empty strings from the list by using all these methods with examples.

1. Quick Examples of Removing Empty Strings from the List

If you are in a hurry, below are some quick examples of removing empty strings from a list.


# Quick examples of removing empty strings from list

# Consider the list of strings
mylist = ["", "Welcome", "", "to", "", "AIStudyLabs.com",""]

# Example 1: Using remove() method
while("" in mylist):
    mylist.remove("")

# Example 2: Using filter() Method
result = list(filter(None, mylist))

# Example 3: Using filter() and lambda function
result = list(filter(lambda x: x != "", mylist))

# Example 4: Using list comprehension
result = [x for x in mylist if x != ""]

# Example 5: Using list comprehension
result = [i for i in mylist if i]

# Example 6: Using enumerate function
result = [value for _, value in enumerate(mylist) if value!= ""]

# Example 7: Using for loop
result = []
for item in mylist:
    if item != "":
        result.append(item)

# Example 8: Using len() method
for i in mylist:
    if(len(i)==0):
        mylist.remove(i)

# Example 9: Using join() + split() method
result = "".join(mylist).split()

# Example 10: Using lambda function
result = list(filter(lambda x: len(x) > 0, mylist))

# Example 11: Using functools.reduce()
result = functools.reduce(lambda a, b: a+[b] if b else a, mylist, [])

# Example 12: Using itertools.filterfalse()
result = list(itertools.filterfalse(lambda x: x == '', mylist))

# Example 13: Using filter() with custom function
def filter_empty_strings(value):
    return value != ""
result = list(filter(filter_empty_strings, mylist))

2. Remove an Empty String from the List Using the remove() Method

You can remove empty strings from a list using the remove() method in Python. First, create a list of strings and use the while loop to check if there are still empty strings("") present in the list("" in mylist). If an empty string is found, the remove() method will remove it from the list. The loop continues until all empty strings have been removed. Finally, the resulting list with no empty strings is printed.


# Consider the list of strings
mylist = ["", "Welcome", "", "to", "", "AIStudyLabs.com",""]
print("Original List: ",mylist)

# Removing empty strings from list 
# Using remove() method
while("" in mylist):
    mylist.remove("")
print("After removing empty strings from the list: ", mylist)

Yields below output.

3. Remove Empty Strings from the List Using filter() Method

To remove empty strings from a list use the filter() method. In this case, instead of using a lambda function as the filter criteria, you can pass None as the first argument to the filter() function.

In the below example, the filter(None, mylist) line filters the mylist list using None as the filter criteria. In Python, passing None as the filter function removes all the elements from the iterable (in this case, the list mylist) that are evaluated False in a boolean context. Since empty strings are evaluated False, they are removed from the list. Finally, the list() function is used to convert the filtered result back into a list.


# Consider the list of strings
mylist = ["", "Welcome", "", "to", "", "AIStudyLabs.com",""]
print("Original List: ",mylist)

# Using filter() Method
result = list(filter(None, mylist))
print("After removing empty strings from the list:", result)