Difference between del, remove and pop on lists

In this article, we will learn the difference between the del, remove, and pop functions of a list in Python. We will use these built-in functions and discuss the difference with examples. Let's first have a quick look over what is a list in Python.

Python List

Python has a built-in data type called list. It is like a collection of arrays with different methodology. Data inside the list can be of any type say, integer, string or a float value, or even a list type. The list uses comma-separated values within square brackets to store data. Lists can be defined using any variable name and then assigning different values to the list in a square bracket. The list is ordered, changeable, and allows duplicate values. For example,

list1 = ["Ram", "Arun", "Kiran"]
list2 = [16, 78, 32, 67]
list3 = ["apple", "mango", 16, "cherry", 3.4]

List support three different functions to delete elements from the given list. Let us discuss the different effects of the three different methods to remove an element from a list.

Python del

Python list has a keyword del to remove the elements of a given list. It can remove the element from a specific index, can remove the entire list, and can also perform list slicing. The index is passed as an argument to del. It returns IndexError if the specified index is not present.

list1 = [9,8,7,6]
del list1[1]
print(list1)

[9, 7, 6]

Example: Delete an entire list

It will return an error if you try to print the deleted list.

list1 = [9,8,7,6]
del (list1)

Example: Delete a part of the list

This also allows avoidance of an IndexError if the index is not in the list.

list1 = [9, 8, 7, 6]
del list1[2:]
print(list1)

[9, 8]

Python remove() Function

Python list has a function remove() to remove the elements of a given list. It removes the first matching value instead of the index, and the value is passed as an argument. It searches the list to find the value and deletes the first matching item it finds. It raises a ValueError if there is no matching value found.

Example: Delete an Element of List

list1 = [0, 2, 3, 2]
list1.remove(2)
print(list1)

[0, 3, 2]

Example: Raises ValueError if not found

list1 = [0, 2, 3, 2]
list1.remove(6)
print(list1)

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/8766bc2d8b0d8fb2b3027df5040c0f1a.py", line 2, in <module>
list1.remove(6)
ValueError: list.remove(x): x not in list

Python pop() Function

Python list has a function pop() to remove the elements of a given list. It removes the element at a specific index and returns it. It is always preferred to use pop() when you have to delete the last element of the list. It raises an IndexError if the index is out of range.

Example: Deletes specific element

list1 = [4, 3, 5]
#prints the deleted element
print("Deleted element- ", list1.pop(1))
#prints updated list
print("Updated list- ",list1)

Deleted element- 3
Updated list- [4, 5]

Example: Raises IndexError if the index is out of range

list1 = [0, 2, 3, 2]
list1.pop(6)
print(list1)

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/eda51ec0836955c0a07d36bf260b03cc.py", line 2, in <module>
list1.pop(6)
IndexError: pop index out of range

A Brief Comparision among del, remove, and pop in Python List.

Conclusion

In this article, we learned about the differences between the three methods of the list to remove elements such as pop(), remove()and del. We discussed various examples with the help of a code.