Overview

The map(), filter() and reduce() functions bring a bit of functional programming to Python. All three of these are convenience functions that can be replaced with List comprehensions or loops but provide a more elegant and short-hand approach to some problems

filter() function

Similar to map(), filter() takes a function object and an iterable and creates a new list. As the name suggests, filter() forms a new list that contains only elements that satisfy a certain condition.

Syntax

filter(function, iterables(s))

Example

def starts_with_A(s):
	return s[0] == "A"

fruit = ["Apple", "Banana", "Pear", "Apricot", "Orange"]

filter_object = filter(starts_with_A, fruit)
print(list(filter_object))

Output:

['Apple', 'Apricot']

It can be also done by using a lambda function like map().