remove

`del list[...]`

Statement that deletes the element or slice at the given position, mutating the list in place. Unlike pop() it does not return the removed value; unlike remove() it targets by index, not by value.

Syntax

del list[i]   |   del list[i:j]

Parameters

Parameter	Purpose
del lst[i]	Delete a single index; raises IndexError if out of range.
del lst[i:j]	Delete a slice; empties the range without error even if bounds exceed the list.
del lst[:]	Delete all elements — equivalent to lst.clear().

Examples

>>> lst = [1, 2, 3, 4]
>>> del lst[1]
>>> lst
[1, 3, 4]

Deletes single index.

>>> lst = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> del lst[1:4]
>>> lst
[1, 5]

Slice deletion.

>>> lst = [1, 2, 3]
>>> del lst[9]
IndexError: list assignment index out of range

Single-index del raises; slice del does not.

>>> lst = [1, 2, 3]
>>> del lst[:]
>>> lst
[]

del lst[:] mirrors clear().

Gotcha

del is a statement, not a method — you cannot call it or pass it as a callback. Single-index del raises IndexError; slice del silently no-ops on empty ranges.

Related methods

list.pop

Removes and returns the item at position i (default -1, the last item). Raises IndexError on an empty list or an out-of-range index.

list.clear

Removes all items from the list in place. Equivalent to `del lst[:]`; returns None.

list[i] / list[i:j:k]

Subscript syntax to read a single element (by index) or a new list (by slice). Slicing always returns a new shallow copy; out-of-range slice bounds are silently clamped while single-index access raises IndexError.

list.remove

Removes the first occurrence of a value equal to x from the list. Raises ValueError if x is not present; returns None.

← All Python list methods · Dict methods · list vs tuple vs set