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Python Python Collections (2016, retired 2019) Lists Disemvowel

Posted by bhuvaneswari seshadri
bhuvaneswari seshadri
134 Points

remove function is not removing some characters

def disemvowel(word): word = list(word) for letter in word: if letter =="u" or letter == "U": word.remove(letter) elif letter == "a" or letter == "A": word.remove(letter) elif letter == "e" or letter == "E": word.remove(letter) elif letter == "o" or letter == "O": word.remove(letter) elif letter == "i" or letter == "I": word.remove(letter)

    return word
disemvowel.py 
def disemvowel(word):
    word = list(word)
    for letter in word:
        if letter =="u" or letter == "U":
            word.remove(letter)
        elif letter == "a" or letter == "A":
            word.remove(letter)
        elif letter == "e" or letter == "E":
            word.remove(letter)
        elif letter == "o" or letter == "O":
            word.remove(letter)
        elif letter == "i" or letter == "I":
            word.remove(letter)


        return word

1 Answer

Wade Williams
Wade Williams
24,476 Points
Wade Williams
Wade Williams
24,476 Points

You have a bug in your code and this is a great way to learn to about this particular bug as it's not always obvious. The problem is you're changing the "word" variable as you're looping over it. So effectively, every time you remove a vowel, all the letters shift down 1 index and your loop skips the letter next to the vowel, which is why you're missing letters.

Here is a simple solution using your code base. We need to assign another variable to list(word) which will act as our control variable, then we can remove items from "word" without affecting our loop variable. Also, after the loop you need to join your loop so you're returning a string and not a list.

def disemvowel(word):
    word = list(word)
    letter_list = list(word)

    for letter in letter_list:

        if letter =="u" or letter == "U":
            word.remove(letter)
        elif letter == "a" or letter == "A":
            word.remove(letter)
        elif letter == "e" or letter == "E":
            word.remove(letter) 
        elif letter == "o" or letter == "O":
            word.remove(letter) 
        elif letter == "i" or letter == "I": 
            word.remove(letter)

    return "".join(word)