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Handling loop variable scope in nested loops with Python's list comprehensions

👀 Views: 421 đŸ’Ŧ Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-07-11
python list-comprehension loops Python

Does anyone know how to I'm learning this framework and I'm working with an scenario with using loop variables in nested list comprehensions in Python. Specifically, I want to create a flattened list from a list of lists, but I'm having trouble with variable scope inside the inner comprehension. Here's my code snippet: ```python nested_list = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5], [6]] flat_list = [num for sublist in nested_list for num in sublist if num > 2] print(flat_list) ``` This code is working fine and returns `[3, 4, 5, 6]` as expected. However, when I try to add another condition based on the outer loop variable, like so: ```python flat_list = [num for sublist in nested_list if len(sublist) > 1 for num in sublist if num > 2] ``` I receive an empty list `[]`. I thought the `len(sublist) > 1` condition should filter the sublists properly, but it seems to be affecting the inner loop. I'm unsure how to incorporate both conditions correctly while retaining the values of `num` from the inner loop. I've also tried using regular for loops instead of list comprehensions: ```python flat_list = [] for sublist in nested_list: if len(sublist) > 1: for num in sublist: if num > 2: flat_list.append(num) ``` This works as expected, returning `[3, 4, 5]`. However, I would prefer to use a more concise list comprehension. Could someone explain why the second comprehension doesn't yield the expected results and how I can correctly use both conditions while maintaining the desired output? I'm working on a mobile app that needs to handle this. Thanks, I really appreciate it! For context: I'm using Python on Debian.