I can't really think of any reason why python needs the del
keyword (and most languages seem to not have a similar keyword). For instance, rather than deleting a variable, one could just assign None
to it. And when deleting from a dictionary, a del
method could be added.
Is there any reason to keep del
in python, or is it a vestige of Python's pre-garbage collection days?
Firstly, you can del other things besides local variables
del list_item[4]
del dictionary["alpha"]
Both of which should be clearly useful. Secondly, using del
on a local variable makes the intent clearer. Compare:
del foo
to
foo = None
I know in the case of del foo
that the intent is to remove the variable from scope. It's not clear that foo = None
is doing that. If somebody just assigned foo = None
I might think it was dead code. But I instantly know what somebody who codes del foo
was trying to do.