I am tasked with taking the following list, and obtain two different lists based on whether the main one contains " – Flowers" or " – Shrub" in their items. I did this, both with list comprehensions and with for loops. However, I can’t seem to be able to remove these trailing parts and print the lists without them using the removesuffix() function.

Here is my code

data = [
    "Andromeda - Shrub",
    "Bellflower - Flower",
    "China Pink - Flower",
    "Daffodil - Flower",
    "Evening Primrose - Flower",
    "French Marigold - Flower",
    "Hydrangea - Shrub",
    "Iris - Flower",
    "Japanese Camellia - Shrub",
    "Lavender - Shrub",
    "Lilac - Shrub",
    "Magnolia - Shrub",
    "Peony - Shrub",
    "Queen Anne's Lace - Flower",
    "Red Hot Poker - Flower",
    "Snapdragon - Flower",
    "Sunflower - Flower",
    "Tiger Lily - Flower",
    "Witch Hazel - Shrub",
]

#List comprehension method
# flowers = [flowers for flowers in data if "Flower" in flowers]
# shrubs = [shrubs for shrubs in data if "Shrub" in shrubs]

#For loops method
flowers = []
shrubs = []

for strings in data:
    if " - Flower" in strings:
        trailing = strings
        trailing.removesuffix(" - Flower")
        flowers.append(trailing)
    elif " - Shrub" in strings:
        strings.removesuffix(" - Shrub")
        shrubs.append(strings)


print(flowers)
print(f"\n")
print(shrubs)

The code works, but I alwyas obtain the result as if the removal doesn’t happen:

['Bellflower - Flower', 'China Pink - Flower', 'Daffodil - Flower', 'Evening Primrose - Flower', 'French Marigold - Flower', 'Iris - Flower', "Queen Anne's Lace - Flower", 'Red Hot Poker - Flower', 'Snapdragon - Flower', 'Sunflower - Flower', 'Tiger Lily - Flower']

How can I use the removesuffix() in both the list comprehension and for loop methods to remove those parts?

>Solution :

You need to assign the output of the removesuffix function call:

for string in data:
    if " - Flower" in string:
        trailing = string.removesuffix(" - Flower")
        flowers.append(trailing)
    elif " - Shrub" in string:
        trailing = string.removesuffix(" - Shrub")
        shrubs.append(trailing)

althought in this scenario, I would recommend you use endswith for the if statements:

flower_suffix = " - Flower"
shrub_suffix = " - Shrub"

for string in data:
    if string.endswith(flower_suffix):
        flowers.append(string.removesuffix(flower_suffix))
    elif string.endswith(shrub_suffix):
        shrubs.append(string.removesuffix(shrub_suffix))