MSc IT - Python Programming

Use del when: 

    You want to permanently remove elements without needing their values
    You need to delete slices of a list
    You want to delete entire variables from memory
    You're doing memory cleanup operations
     

Use pop() when: 

    You need to access the removed element's value
    You're implementing stack operations
    You want to temporarily remove elements for processing
    You're working with algorithms that require element retrieval during removal

Example :

# Example 1: Removing single elements
my_list1 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
my_list2 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

# Using del
del my_list1[2]  # Removes element 3
print(my_list1)  # [1, 2, 4, 5]

# Using pop()
removed = my_list2.pop(2)  # Removes and returns element 3
print(removed)  # 3
print(my_list2)  # [1, 2, 4, 5]

# Example 2: Removing last element
my_list1 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
my_list2 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

# Using del
del my_list1[-1]  # Removes last element
print(my_list1)  # [1, 2, 3, 4]

# Using pop()
last = my_list2.pop()  # Removes and returns last element
print(last)  # 5
print(my_list2)  # [1, 2, 3, 4]

# Example 3: Slice deletion (del only)
my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
del my_list[1:4]  # Removes elements at indices 1, 2, 3
print(my_list)  # [1, 5, 6]