Skip to main content

How to remove an element at a specific position in a list in Python

How to remove an element at a specific position in a list in Python.

Here's a step-by-step tutorial on how to remove an element at a specific position in a list in Python:

  1. First, create a list with some elements. For example, let's create a list called my_list with the following elements: ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry', 'date'].

  2. Determine the position of the element you want to remove. In Python, list positions are indexed starting from 0. So, the first element in the list has a position of 0, the second element has a position of 1, and so on.

  3. To remove an element at a specific position, you can use the del keyword followed by the list name and the index of the element you want to remove. For example, if you want to remove the element at position 2 (which is 'cherry') from the my_list, you can use the following code:

del my_list[2]

  1. After executing the above code, the element at position 2 ('cherry') will be removed from the list. The updated my_list will now be: ['apple', 'banana', 'date'].

  2. Alternatively, you can use the pop() method to remove an element at a specific position and also retrieve its value. The pop() method takes the index of the element as an argument and returns the removed element. For example, to remove the element at position 2 ('cherry') and store its value in a variable called removed_element, you can use the following code:

removed_element = my_list.pop(2)

After executing the above code, the element at position 2 ('cherry') will be removed from the list, and the value of removed_element will be 'cherry'. The updated my_list will now be: ['apple', 'banana', 'date'].

  1. If you're not sure about the position of the element you want to remove, you can use the remove() method. The remove() method takes the value of the element as an argument and removes the first occurrence of that value from the list. For example, if you want to remove the element 'banana' from my_list, you can use the following code:
my_list.remove('banana')

After executing the above code, the first occurrence of 'banana' will be removed from the list. The updated my_list will now be: ['apple', 'date'].

That's it! You've learned how to remove an element at a specific position in a list in Python using the del keyword, pop() method, and remove() method.