Best way to eliminate duplicates in a list, but keep previous relative order
<blockquote>
  <p><strong>Possible Duplicate:</strong><br>
  <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/480214/how-do-you-remove-duplicates-from-a-list-in-python-whilst-preserving-order">How do you remove duplicates from a list in Python whilst preserving order?</a><br>
  <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1653970/does-python-have-an-ordered-set">Does Python have an ordered set?</a>  </p>
</blockquote>



<p>I find myself doing the following quite frequently:</p>

<pre><code>list_of_items # I have a list of items
set(list_of_items) # I want to remove duplicates
</code></pre>

<p>However, in converting to a <code>set</code>, I lose the initial ordering I had in the list, which is important.</p>

<p>What is the best way to remove duplicates in a list AND keep the initial (relative) ordering of the list?</p>
