["python","list"]
Finding elements not in a list

So heres my code: item = [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] z = [] # list of integers for item in z: if item not in z: print item z contains a list of integers. I want to compare item to z and print out the numbers that are not in z when compared to item. I can print the elements that are in z when compared not item, but when I try and do the opposite using the code above nothing prints. Any help?
Your code is not doing what I think you think it is doing. The line for item in z: will iterate through z, each time making item equal to one single element of z. The original item list is therefore overwritten before you've done anything with it. I think you want something like this: item = [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] for element in item: if element not in z: print(element) But you could easily do this like: [x for x in item if x not in z] or (if you don't mind losing duplicates of non-unique elements): set(item) - set(z)