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Python FTW: Under the Hood

Stubborn del Operation

Explore how Python handles the del operation and reference counting to manage object deletion. Understand why __del__ may not always be called immediately and how interpreter variables affect object lifecycle.

We'll cover the following...

How can deleting something be so complex?

Python 3.5
class SomeClass:
    def __del__(self):
        print("Deleted!")

1.

Let’s delete SomeClass() objects in the interactive interpreter below.

Python 3.5
>>> x = SomeClass()
>>> y = x
>>> del x # this should print "Deleted!"
>>> del y
Deleted!
Terminal 1
Terminal
Loading...

Phew, deleted at last. You might have guessed what saved __del__ from being called in our first attempt to delete x.

2.

Let’s add more twists to the ...