input = list(open("C:\\Users\\andrewd\\Source\\Repos\\adoc\\d5.txt").read()) print("Initial length of input:", len(input)) set_deleted = 0 del_count = 0 while set_deleted < 1: del_check = 0 for x in range(len(input)-1): if abs(ord(input[x]) - ord(input[x+1])) == 32: input.remove(input[x]) input.remove(input[x]) del_check = 1 del_count = del_count + 2 break if del_check == 0: set_deleted = 1 print("Number of characters deleted:", del_count) print("Characters remaining:", input) print("Number of characters remaining:", len(input))