Question

I want to do this:

while list:
    for blah in blah:
        things
    list.remove(min(list))

Would this loop until all the items in list are removed? As i have it my code, it just loops through [list] times, and then returns from the function. I need a loop that will keep going until all the items of list are gone.

I should note, nothing inbetween (in the for loop) is processed until the last iteration.

By request, the entire algorithm as it runs:

def parsexlsx(address):
    bits = [] 
    i = 0
    while address:
        min_address = False
        for row in ws.iter_rows(row_offset=4,column_offset=3):
            c = row[2]
            d = row[3]
            if not d.internal_value:
                if min_address:     #we set it to true, then kept going until blank row
                    break           #bits is what you want it to be now
                bits = []           #reset bits every time we hit a new row
                continue            #this will just skip to next row

            for bits_cell in row[4:]:
                if bits_cell.internal_value:
                    bits.append(bits_cell.internal_value)
            if c.internal_value:
                if c.internal_value == min(address):
                    min_address = True
        address.remove(min(address))

    print bits
    return bits 

Answer 1

You need to use a separate variable from bits to hold EVERY piece of data. bits gets reset throughout your code, so I would recommend using something like all_bits and change bits to min_addr_bits. Also, you need to make sure for EVERY row that isn’t blank, you append bits to all_bits. Example posted on request.