Slices: continued

As we've said before, omitting both start and end makes a copy of the whole list:

myList = [10, 8, 6, 4, 2]
newList = myList[:]
print(newList)

The snippet's output is: [10, 8, 6, 4, 2].

The previously described del instruction is able to delete more than just a list's element at once - it can delete slices too:

myList = [10, 8, 6, 4, 2]
del myList[1:3]
print(myList)

Note: in this case, the slice doesn't produce any new list!

The snippet's output is: [10, 4, 2].

Deleting all the elements at once is possible too:

myList = [10, 8, 6, 4, 2]
del myList[:]
print(myList)

The list becomes empty, and the output is: [].

Removing the slice from the code changes its meaning dramatically.

Take a look:

myList = [10, 8, 6, 4, 2]
del myList
print(myList)

The del instruction will delete the list itself, not its content.

The print() function invocation from the last line of the code will then cause a runtime error.

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