Python list remove
last modified January 29, 2024
In this article we show how to remove list elements in Python.
A list is an ordered collection of values. It is a mutable collection. The list elemetns can be accessed by zero-based indexes.
It is possible to delete list elements with remove,
pop, and clear functions and the del
keyword.
Python list remove
The remove function removes the first occurrence of the given
value. It raises ValueError if the value is not present.
#!/usr/bin/python
words = ["sky", "cup", "new", "war", "wrong", "crypto", "forest",
"water", "cup"]
print(words)
words.remove("cup")
print(words)
words.remove("cup")
print(words)
The program defines a list of words. We delete two words from the list.
$ ./main.py ['sky', 'cup', 'new', 'war', 'wrong', 'crypto', 'forest', 'water', 'cup'] ['sky', 'new', 'war', 'wrong', 'crypto', 'forest', 'water', 'cup'] ['sky', 'new', 'war', 'wrong', 'crypto', 'forest', 'water']
Python list pop
The pop function removes and returns the element at the given
index. If the index is not explicitly defined, it defaults to the last. The
function raises IndexError if list is empty or the index is out of
range.
#!/usr/bin/python
words = ["sky", "cup", "new", "war", "wrong", "crypto", "forest",
"water", "cup"]
w = words.pop(0)
print(f'{w} has been deleted')
w = words.pop()
print(f'{w} has been deleted')
print(words)
In the program, we delete two words with pop. We print the deleted
words to the console.
$ ./main.py sky has been deleted cup has been deleted ['cup', 'new', 'war', 'wrong', 'crypto', 'forest', 'water']
Python list clear
The clear method deletes all items in the list.
#!/usr/bin/python
words = ["sky", "cup", "new", "war", "wrong", "crypto", "forest",
"water", "cup"]
print(f'there are {len(words)} words in the list')
words.clear()
print(f'there are {len(words)} words in the list')
The program uses the clear function. It also counts the number of
list elements with len.
$ ./main.py there are 9 words in the list there are 0 words in the list
Python list del
Alternatively, we can also use the del keyword to delete an element
at the given index.
#!/usr/bin/python
words = ["sky", "cup", "new", "war", "wrong", "crypto", "forest",
"water", "cup"]
del words[0]
del words[-1]
print(words)
vals = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
del vals[0:4]
print(vals)
In the program, we delete elemetns with del.
del words[0] del words[-1]
We delete the first and the last element of the list.
vals = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10] del vals[0:4]
Here, we delete a range of integers.
$ ./main.py ['cup', 'new', 'war', 'wrong', 'crypto', 'forest', 'water'] [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
Source
Python datastructures - language reference
In this article we have shown how to delete list element in Python.
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