Difference between del and remove?

[Tim Roberts]

Yansky <thegooddale at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>Got a quick n00b question. What's the difference between del and
>remove?

It would have been easier to answer if you had given a little context.

"del" is a Python statement that removes a name from a namespace, an item
from a dictionary, or an item from a list.

"remove" is a member function of the 'list' class that finds a specific
entry in the list and removes it.

Example:

>>> e = [9,8,7,6] ; del e[2] ; e
[9, 8, 6]

>>> e = [9,8,7,6] ; e.remove(2) ; e
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
ValueError: list.remove(x): x not in list

>>> e = [9,8,7,6] ; e.remove(8) ; e
[9, 7, 6]

Note that "del e[2]" removed item number 2 (counting from 0).  e.remove(8)
removed the item that had the value 8 from the list.  e.remove(2) failed
because the number 2 was not in the list.

Dictionaries do not have a "remove" method.  You have to use the "del"
statement.
-- 
Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.