Owing to the advantages of simple structure, low power consumption and high-density integration, memristors or memristive devices are attracting increasing attention in the fields such as next generation non-volatile memories, neuromorphic computation and data encryption.However, the deposition of memristive films often requires expensive equipment, strict vacuum conditions, high energy consumption, and extended processing times. In contrast,electrochemical anodizing can produce metal oxide films quickly (e.g. 10 s) under ambient conditions. By means of the anodizing technique, oxide films, oxide nanotubes, nanowires and nanodots can be fabricated to prepare memristors. Oxide film thickness, nanostructures, defect concentrations, etc, can be varied to regulate device performances by adjusting oxidation parameters such as voltage, current and time. Thus memristors fabricated by the anodic oxidation technique can achieve high device consistency, low variation, and ultrahigh yield rate.This article provides a comprehensive review of the research progress in the field of anodic oxidation assisted fabrication of memristors. Firstly, the principle of anodic oxidation is introduced; then, different types of memristors produced by anodic oxidation and their applications are presented; finally, features and challenges of anodic oxidation for memristor production are elaborated.