List operation: Removing an item

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 15 Apr 2006 22:39:37 -0600, Miguel E. wrote:

> I am trying to create a function that removes an item as specified by
> the user. Apparently, the list operation "del list[:]" deletes the
> entire list. Below is the sample function.

If you know the value of the item, and not its position:

somelist.remove("value")

This will raise an exception if "value" is not in somelist.

If you know the item's position:

del somelist[position]

or 

somelist[position:position+1] = []

or even:

somelist = somelist[:position] + somelist[position+1:]

(That last example is quite inefficient for lists, but it is a useful
technique to remember for immutable sequences like strings.)


-- 
Steven.