remove_consecutive.py

from itertools import zip_longest


def remove_consecutive(lst, item=0):
    """Remove consecutive occurrences of `item` from `lst`.

    For example:

    >>> print(list(remove_consecutive([1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1], item=0)))
    [1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1]
    >>> print(list(remove_consecutive(['a', 'b', '', '', '', 'c', '', 'd', 'e'], item='')))
    ['a', 'b', '', 'c', '', 'd', 'e']

    Single occurrences will always be kept.
    """
    return (a for a, b in filter(lambda x: x != (item, item), zip_longest(lst[0:], lst[1:])))