Difference between del, remove, and pop on lists in Python

In Python, del is a keyword while remove() and pop() are list methods. All these three are used for the same purpose but the way they operate differs. Let’s learn those differences now.

del:

It is used to remove an element from a list at a specified location i.e. index.

Example:

list= [1,3,5,7,9]
del list[2]
print(list)

Output:
We can delete the entire list using this del keyword and also use it to delete a specific range of elements i.e. using slicing.

Example:

list= [1,3,5,7,9]
del list
print(list)

list= [1,3,5,7,9]
del list[2:]
print(list)

Output:

If we try to print any specific element which isn’t present in the list, then it throws an IndexError.

remove():

In this method, we directly pass the element we want to delete or remove, as an argument.

Example:

list= [1,3,5,7,9]
list.remove(3)
print(list)

Output:

If we try to print any specific element which isn’t present in the list, then it throws a ValueError.

pop():

The pop() method not only deletes the element at the specified position (index) but also returns it. 

Example:

list= [1,3,5,7,9]
print(list.pop(3))
print(list)

Output:

It also shows IndexError(pop index out of range) when the element we are trying to delete isn’t present in the list.

Note 1: The del keyword can delete one item as well as the entire list. Whereas, pop() and remove() can delete only one element at once.

Note 2: The pop() method returns us the deleted value, whereas, del and remove() doesn’t.