Question

This code works. But I can’t help but feel it’s a hack, especially the “offset” part. I had to put that in there because otherwise all the index values in deletes are shifted by one every time I do a del operation.

    # remove outliers > devs # of std deviations
    devs = 1
    deletes = []
    for num, duration in enumerate(durations):
        if (duration > (mean_duration + (devs * std_dev_one_test))) or \
            (duration < (mean_duration - (devs * std_dev_one_test))):
            deletes.append(num)
    offset = 0
    for delete in deletes:
        del durations[delete - offset]
        del dates[delete - offset]
        offset += 1

Ideas on how to make it better?

Answer 1

Build a list of keepers as you iterate over the list:

def isKeeper( duration ):
    if (duration > (mean_duration + (devs * std_dev_one_test))) or \
            (duration < (mean_duration - (devs * std_dev_one_test))):
        return False
    return True

durations = [duration for duration in durations if isKeeper(duration)]