When (and why) to use del?

[Slaunger]

On 9 Dec., 17:35, Albert Hopkins <mar... at letterboxes.org> wrote:
> I'm looking at a person's code and I see a lot of stuff like this:
>
>         def myfunction():
>             # do some stuff stuff
>             my_string = function_that_returns_string()
>             # do some stuff with my_string
>             del my_string
>             # do some other stuff
>             return
>
> and also
>
>         def otherfunction():
>             try:
>                 # some stuff
>             except SomeException, e:
>                 # more stuff
>                 del e
>             return
>
> I think this looks ugly, but also does it not hurt performance by
> preempting the gc?  My feeling is that this is a misuse of 'del'. Am I
> wrong?  Is there any advantage of doing the above?

I agree with you. In my mind there is no reason for such kinds of
deletes. The code seems to have been made by a person who úsually
programs in a language which does not have a garbage collector. I do
not know if it has any noticeable impact on the performance.

-- Slaunger