To remove an element and assign the list in one line

Solution 1:

I suppose this would work:

a = [1, 3, 2, 4]
b = (a.remove(1), a)[1]

This is assuming that you want to do both things:

1. Modify the original list by removing the element, and
2. Return the (now modified) list.

EDIT

Another alternative:

b = a.remove(1) or a

Both are fairly confusing; I'm not sure I would use either in code.

EDIT 2

Since you mentioned wanting to use this in a lambda... are you aware that you can use an actual named function any time you would otherwise use a lambda?

E.g. instead of something like this:

map(lambda x: x.remove(1) and x, foo)

You can do this:

def remove_and_return(x):
    x.remove(1)
    return x

map(remove_and_return, foo)

Solution 2:

Since remove returns None, you could just or a to it:

>>> a = [1, 3, 2, 4]
>>> a.remove(1) or a
[3, 2, 4]