您可能希望使用集合而不是列表。

如果顺序无关紧要，你可以简单地计算集合差值:

>>> set([1,2,3,4]) - set([2,5])
set([1, 4, 3])
>>> set([2,5]) - set([1,2,3,4])
set([5])

Python 2.7.3(默认，2014年2月27日，19:58:35)- IPython 1.1.0 - timeit:(github gist)

def diff(a, b):
  b = set(b)
  return [aa for aa in a if aa not in b]

def set_diff(a, b):
  return list(set(a) - set(b))

diff_lamb_hension = lambda l1,l2: [x for x in l1 if x not in l2]

diff_lamb_filter = lambda l1,l2: filter(lambda x: x not in l2, l1)

from difflib import SequenceMatcher
def squeezer(a, b):
  squeeze = SequenceMatcher(None, a, b)
  return reduce(lambda p,q: p+q, map(
    lambda t: squeeze.a[t[1]:t[2]],
      filter(lambda x:x[0]!='equal',
        squeeze.get_opcodes())))

结果:

# Small
a = range(10)
b = range(10/2)

timeit[diff(a, b)]
100000 loops, best of 3: 1.97 µs per loop

timeit[set_diff(a, b)]
100000 loops, best of 3: 2.71 µs per loop

timeit[diff_lamb_hension(a, b)]
100000 loops, best of 3: 2.1 µs per loop

timeit[diff_lamb_filter(a, b)]
100000 loops, best of 3: 3.58 µs per loop

timeit[squeezer(a, b)]
10000 loops, best of 3: 36 µs per loop

# Medium
a = range(10**4)
b = range(10**4/2)

timeit[diff(a, b)]
1000 loops, best of 3: 1.17 ms per loop

timeit[set_diff(a, b)]
1000 loops, best of 3: 1.27 ms per loop

timeit[diff_lamb_hension(a, b)]
1 loops, best of 3: 736 ms per loop

timeit[diff_lamb_filter(a, b)]
1 loops, best of 3: 732 ms per loop

timeit[squeezer(a, b)]
100 loops, best of 3: 12.8 ms per loop

# Big
a = xrange(10**7)
b = xrange(10**7/2)

timeit[diff(a, b)]
1 loops, best of 3: 1.74 s per loop

timeit[set_diff(a, b)]
1 loops, best of 3: 2.57 s per loop

timeit[diff_lamb_filter(a, b)]
# too long to wait for

timeit[diff_lamb_filter(a, b)]
# too long to wait for

timeit[diff_lamb_filter(a, b)]
# TypeError: sequence index must be integer, not 'slice'

@roman-bodnarchuk列表推导函数def diff(a, b)似乎更快。

您可能希望使用集合而不是列表。

当查看in -operator的TimeComplexity时，在最坏的情况下它与O(n)一起工作。即使是集合。

因此，当比较两个数组时，最好情况下的TimeComplexity为O(n)，最坏情况下为O(n²)。

另一种(但不幸的是更复杂)解决方案，在最好和最坏的情况下都适用于O(n):

# Compares the difference of list a and b
# uses a callback function to compare items
def diff(a, b, callback):
  a_missing_in_b = []
  ai = 0
  bi = 0

  a = sorted(a, callback)
  b = sorted(b, callback)

  while (ai < len(a)) and (bi < len(b)):

    cmp = callback(a[ai], b[bi])
    if cmp < 0:
      a_missing_in_b.append(a[ai])
      ai += 1
    elif cmp > 0:
      # Item b is missing in a
      bi += 1
    else:
      # a and b intersecting on this item
      ai += 1
      bi += 1

  # if a and b are not of same length, we need to add the remaining items
  for ai in xrange(ai, len(a)):
    a_missing_in_b.append(a[ai])


  return a_missing_in_b

e.g.

>>> a=[1,2,3]
>>> b=[2,4,6]
>>> diff(a, b, cmp)
[1, 3]

上面的例子使计算差异的问题变得微不足道。假设排序或重复数据删除确实使计算差异变得更容易，但如果您的比较无法承担这些假设，那么您将需要一个diff算法的重要实现。请参阅python标准库中的difflib。

#! /usr/bin/python2
from difflib import SequenceMatcher

A = [1,2,3,4]
B = [2,5]

squeeze=SequenceMatcher( None, A, B )

print "A - B = [%s]"%( reduce( lambda p,q: p+q,
                               map( lambda t: squeeze.a[t[1]:t[2]],
                                    filter(lambda x:x[0]!='equal',
                                           squeeze.get_opcodes() ) ) ) )

或Python3…

#! /usr/bin/python3
from difflib import SequenceMatcher
from functools import reduce

A = [1,2,3,4]
B = [2,5]

squeeze=SequenceMatcher( None, A, B )

print( "A - B = [%s]"%( reduce( lambda p,q: p+q,
                               map( lambda t: squeeze.a[t[1]:t[2]],
                                    filter(lambda x:x[0]!='equal',
                                           squeeze.get_opcodes() ) ) ) ) )

输出:

A - B = [[1, 3, 4]]