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remove-by-index

---
id: remove-by-index
title: Removing Elements with the del Keyword and pop() Function
description: Methods to remove specific elements from a list by index
tags:
- list
- del keyword
- pop function
- Python
- programming
sidebar_position: 8
isPublic: false
---

# Removing Elements with the del Keyword and pop() Function

To remove an element at a specific index in a list, you can use the `del` statement or the `pop()` method.

<br />

## Using the del Keyword

The `del` statement removes the element at the specified index from the list.

```python title="Example of del Keyword"
fruits = ['Apple', 'Banana', 'Cherry']

del fruits[1] # Remove the element at index 1 (second element)

print("fruits:", fruits) # ['Apple', 'Cherry']

In the code above, del fruits[1] removes the 'Banana' from the fruits list at index 1 (the second element).


Using the pop() Function

The pop() function removes the element at a specific index within parentheses (), and returns its value.

If no index is specified, it removes and returns the last element of the list.

Example of pop() Function
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
last_number = numbers.pop()

print("last_number:", last_number)
# 5

print("numbers:", numbers)
# [1, 2, 3, 4]

first_number = numbers.pop(0)

print("first_number:", first_number)
# 1

print("numbers:", numbers)
# [2, 3, 4]

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