why del is not a function or method?

[Steve D'Aprano]

On Tue, 17 Oct 2017 03:16 am, Oren Ben-Kiki wrote:

> That doesn't explain why `del` isn't a method though.


`del` cannot be a method or a function, because the argument to `del` is the
name of the variable, not the contents of the variable.

If we write:

    x = 123
    del x

then `del` needs to delete the *name* "x", not the value of x, namely 123. If
del were a function or method, it would only see the value, 123, and have no
idea what the name is.

`del` is kind of like an "anti-assignment" in that the argument to `del` must
be exactly the same sort of expression that can appear on the left hand side
of assignment:


    123 = 1+1  # illegal
    del 123  # also illegal



-- 
Steve
“Cheer up,” they said, “things could be worse.” So I cheered up, and sure
enough, things got worse.