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Python Python Basics (2015) Python Data Types List cleanup

Alex Figueroa
Alex Figueroa
2,148 Points
Posted by Alex Figueroa
Alex Figueroa
2,148 Points

How to delete an item of a list

I'm going back to my notes and looked online it specifically says to remove 8 from my list. I then use del messy[8] which is obvious however I get an index error. How could this be?

lists.py 
messy = [5, 2, 8, 1, 3]
del messy[8]

1 Answer

Wade Williams
Wade Williams
24,476 Points
Wade Williams
Wade Williams
24,476 Points

When you delete using del you need to provide the index of the item you want to delete and not the value. You're getting an index error because you're trying to delete the item at index 8 and there's only 5 items in the list.

To delete the number 8, you would delete the item at index number 2

messy = [5, 2, 8, 1, 3]
del messy[2]