Python Programming Language :: What does "del" actually do?


	What does "del" actually do? The Python "reference manual" says, for "del", "Rather that spelling it out in full details, here are some hints." That's not too helpful. In particular, when "del" is applied to a class object, what happens? Are all the instance attributes deleted from the object? Is behavior the same for both old and new classes? I'm trying to break cycles to fix some memory usage problems. John Nagle del simply removes the name in the current scope. if that happens to be the last non-cyclic reference to the object it was bound to, then it will remove the objec to, but thats a seperate matter. if you remove the class and there are instances out there, they can only exist if there are some other references to them, so no, they arent deleted. del wont just delete a bunch of objects and leave broken names. i has nothing to do with deleting objects, only names. On 2/10/07, John Nagle <n@animats.com> wrote: > The Python "reference manual" says, for "del", "Rather that spelling it out > in full details, here are some hints." That's not too helpful. > In particular, when "del" is applied to a class object, what happens? > Are all the instance attributes deleted from the object? Is behavior > the same for both old and new classes? > I'm trying to break cycles to fix some memory usage problems. > John Nagle > -- > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list -- Read my blog! I depend on your acceptance of my opinion! I am interesting! http://ironfroggy-code.blogspot.com/