What is the best way to delete strings in a string list that that match certain pattern?

[Peng Yu]

On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 8:54 AM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve at remove-this-cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> On Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:16:58 -0600, Peng Yu wrote:
>
>> What is a list-comprehension?
>
> Time for you to Read The Fine Manual.
>
> http://docs.python.org/tutorial/index.html
>
>
>> I tried the following code. The list 'l' will be ['a','b','c'] rather
>> than ['b','c'], which is what I want. It seems 'remove' will disrupt the
>> iterator, right? I am wondering how to make the code correct.
>>
>> l = ['a', 'a', 'b', 'c']
>> for x in l:
>>   if x == 'a':
>>     l.remove(x)
>
>
> Oh lordy, it's Shlemiel the Painter's algorithm. Please don't do that for
> lists with more than a handful of items. Better still, please don't do
> that.
>
> http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000319.html

I understand what is Shlemiel the Painter's algorithm. But if the
iterator can be intelligently adjusted in my code upon 'remove()', is
my code Shlemiel the Painter's algorithm?