Easily Remove Duplicates from a Python List in 2021

How to Easily Remove Duplicates from a Python List

Removing duplicates in a list is an essential part of data manipulation. Having duplicate values can cause issues with accuracy and integrity of your data which can lead to distorted results. Thankfully, Python has a built-in method of removing duplicates that is both simple and efficient.

Step 1: Create a List

The first step is to create the list that you would like to remove the duplicates from. This list can be a list of numbers, strings, or even objects. For the sake of this example, we will create a list of numbers.

list_of_numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7]

Step 2: Convert List to Set

To easily remove duplicates, converting the list to a set is the most efficient way. Sets are unordered collections of unique elements which means that they can not contain duplicate values. By converting the list to a set, all the duplicate values will be eliminated.

unique_set = set(list_of_numbers)
print(unique_set) # Output: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}

Step 3: Convert Set Back to List

Once the set has been created, it can easily be converted back to a list by simply using the list function. This will create a list where all the duplicates have been removed.

unique_list = list(unique_set)
print(unique_list) # Output: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

Conclusion

With only a few lines of code, you can easily remove duplicates from a Python list. This is a great tool to have in your arsenal when dealing with data analysis and manipulation. Hopefully this tutorial was able to give you the knowledge necessary to apply this technique to your own projects.