Error: ValueError: list.remove(x): x not in list while removing folders from dir list

Question

I am getting above error when I am trying to remove .zip files from my directory list

>>> from os import listdir
>>> from os.path import isfile,join
>>> dr = listdir(r"C:\Users\lenovo\Desktop\ronit")
>>> dr

output:

['7101', '7101.zip', '7102', '7102.zip', '7103', '7103.zip']

Now for removing .zip files I wrote following code:

>>> dr.remove("*.zip")

output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#18>", line 1, in <module>
dr.remove("*.zip")
ValueError: list.remove(x): x not in list

where am I going wrong?

Do you want to remove it from your directory? Or the variable? — cs95
– cs95, Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 18:59
Isn't it obvious from the error? "*.zip" is not in your list... — juanpa.arrivillaga
– juanpa.arrivillaga, Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 19:09
Can anyone tell my why this actually does nothing? thanks names = [x for x in names if x is not None or '00000'] Id frankly like to clean this up the whole thing is names= list(df_ora['CODE'].unique()) names.append("00000") names = [x for x in names if x != None] names = [x for x in names if x != '00000'] — Tinkinc
– Tinkinc, Commented Apr 12, 2018 at 14:43

zwer · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-13 19:00:00Z

2

You cannot use wildcards when removing from a list, you have to iterate through it if you want to do away with partial matches, e.g.:

filtered_list = [file_name for file_name in dr if file_name[-4:] != ".zip"]
# ['7101', '7102', '7103']

answered Jun 13, 2017 at 19:00

zwer

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5 Comments

Wondercricket Over a year ago

Just out of curiosity, any reason for not using endswith?

Chris Over a year ago

I think it would be more robust if you used .endswith() instead of relying on slice notation.

zwer Over a year ago

@Wondercricket - performance... str.endswith() does exactly the same, just after going through a couple of hoops. You get 10-20% speed increase in dependence of Python version and it's not as if it's cryptic or unreadable to be considered 'non-Pythonic'.

G_M Over a year ago

@zwer str.endswith seems easier to extend (with a tuple) for additional file extensions and some may not be 4 characters long (including the period)

zwer Over a year ago

Let me be clear, I'm not denying the benefits of str.endswith() - it does the dirty work of figuring out the length of a passed string and creates a slice based on that which in certain situations can be faster than doing your own slicing (as it happens on the C side in CPython)... I'm denying it's 'usefulness' (or rather advocate for better performant versions) in strict cases like this one where we upfront know what we're looking for.

Roi S. · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-13 19:20:57Z

0

import os
from os import listdir
from os.path import join

dir = 'C:\\Users\\lenovo\\Desktop\\ronit'
dr=os.listdir(dir)

for f in dr:
    if item.endswith(".zip"):
        os.remove(join(dir, f))

answered Jun 13, 2017 at 19:20

Roi S.

566 bronze badges

1 Comment

Wondercricket Over a year ago

Seeing how the other answer was accepted, it can be assumed that the OP was not asking for removing the file from the directory

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