Terry Reedy wrote: > Steve Holden wrote: >> David Niergarth wrote: [...] >>> I'm not sure what deleting a slice accomplishes (del x[:]); the >>> behavior is the same whether I do del x or del x[:]. Any ideas? >>> >> del x removes the name x from the current namespace, garbage collecting >> the object to which it referred. > > If there is another reference to the list, which there well might be in > an actual application with memory problems, then 'del x' only > disassociates the name but the object and its large contents are not gc'ed. > >> del x[:] leaves x referencing a cleared list. > > which is guaranteed to be cleared, regardless of other refs. > Nice catch, Terry! You correctly spotted I was assuming that d represented the only reference to the list.
regards Steve -- Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/ -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
