Difference between del, remove and pop on lists

Question

>>> a=[1,2,3]
>>> a.remove(2)
>>> a
[1, 3]
>>> a=[1,2,3]
>>> del a[1]
>>> a
[1, 3]
>>> a= [1,2,3]
>         


        

Answer 1

Here is a detailed answer.

del can be used for any class object whereas pop and remove and bounded to specific classes.

For del

Here are some examples

>>> a = 5
>>> b = "this is string"
>>> c = 1.432
>>> d = myClass()

>>> del c
>>> del a, b, d   # we can use comma separated objects

We can override __del__ method in user-created classes.

Specific uses with list

>>> a = [1, 4, 2, 4, 12, 3, 0]
>>> del a[4]
>>> a
[1, 4, 2, 4, 3, 0]

>>> del a[1: 3]   # we can also use slicing for deleting range of indices
>>> a
[1, 4, 3, 0]

For pop

pop takes the index as a parameter and removes the element at that index

Unlike del, pop when called on list object returns the value at that index

>>> a = [1, 5, 3, 4, 7, 8]
>>> a.pop(3)  # Will return the value at index 3
4
>>> a
[1, 5, 3, 7, 8]

For remove

remove takes the parameter value and remove that value from the list.

If multiple values are present will remove the first occurrence

Note: Will throw ValueError if that value is not present

>>> a = [1, 5, 3, 4, 2, 7, 5]
>>> a.remove(5)  # removes first occurence of 5
>>> a
[1, 3, 4, 2, 7, 5]
>>> a.remove(5)
>>> a
[1, 3, 4, 2, 7]

Hope this answer is helpful.