---
# System prepended metadata

title: Leetcode 27. Remove Element
tags: [Leetcode, Python]

---

# Leetcode 27. Remove Element

Description:

Given an integer array nums and an integer val, remove all occurrences of val in nums in-place. The order of the elements may be changed. Then return the number of elements in nums which are not equal to val.

Consider the number of elements in nums which are not equal to val be k, to get accepted, you need to do the following things:

Change the array nums such that the first k elements of nums contain the elements which are not equal to val. The remaining elements of nums are not important as well as the size of nums.
Return k.

Example 1:

> Input: nums = [3,2,2,3], val = 3
> Output: 2, nums = [2,2,_,_]
> Explanation: Your function should return k = 2, with the first two elements of nums being 2.
> It does not matter what you leave beyond the returned k (hence they are underscores).

Example 2:

> Input: nums = [0,1,2,2,3,0,4,2], val = 2
> Output: 5, nums = [0,1,4,0,3,_,_,_]
> Explanation: Your function should return k = 5, with the first five elements of nums containing 0, 0, 1, 3, and 4.
> Note that the five elements can be returned in any order.
> It does not matter what you leave beyond the returned k (hence they are underscores).


Solution:
```python
class Solution:
    def removeElement(self, nums: List[int], val: int) -> int:
        
        # initialize pointer: point to the position to store value different from input val
        pointer = 0

        # iterate the list
        for i in range(len(nums)):
            # if the number not equal to input val, store at the pointer position
            if nums[i] != val:
                nums[pointer] = nums[i]
                # pointer increment 1
                pointer += 1

        return pointer
```