I have a list comprehension which approximates to:
[f(x) for x in l if f(x)]
Where l is a list and f(x) is an expensive function which returns a list.
I want to avoid evaluating f(x) twice for every non-empty occurance of f(x). Is there some way to save its output within the list comprehension?
I could remove the final condition, generate the whole list and then prune it, but that seems wasteful.
Edit:
Two basic approaches have been suggested:
An inner generator comprehension:
[y for y in (f(x) for x in l) if y]
or memoization.
I think the inner generator comprehension is elegant for the problem as stated. In actual fact I simplified the question to make it clear, I really want:
[g(x, f(x)) for x in l if f(x)]
For this more complicated situation, I think memoization produces a cleaner end result.