Del builtin function not mentioned in the docs

Documentation
1

Why is the del builtin function not mentioned in the builtin functions docs ? is it a bug?

I was doing a python tutorial which mentioned del and wanted to read the official docs about it, but I can’t find it.

Regards,

2

del is not a function, it’s a syntax construct: 7. Simple statements — Python 3.12.6 documentation

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3

Thank you.

I’m Python newbie so didn’t know if it was a builtin function or statement, I just googled “python del builtin” and was referenced to the aforementioned page.

Thanks for clarifying.

4

You tell by looking for parens, the function-calling syntax. del
doesn’t use them so it’s not a function.

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5

Note that in case of doubt you can ask the Python interpreter: you can type a function name and you will get the function object.

>>> abs
<built-in function abs>

But you can’t type del keyword alone, it’s a syntax error.

>>> del
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    del
       ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Also you can ask for help about the keyword:

>>> help('del')
The "del" statement
*******************

   del_stmt ::= "del" target_list

Deletion is recursively defined very similar to the way assignment is
defined. Rather than spelling it out in full details, here are some
hints.

Deletion of a target list recursively deletes each target, from left
to right.

Deletion of a name removes the binding of that name from the local or
global namespace, depending on whether the name occurs in a "global"
statement in the same code block.  If the name is unbound, a
"NameError" exception will be raised.

Deletion of attribute references, subscriptions and slicings is passed
to the primary object involved; deletion of a slicing is in general
equivalent to assignment of an empty slice of the right type (but even
this is determined by the sliced object).

Changed in version 3.2: Previously it was illegal to delete a name
from the local namespace if it occurs as a free variable in a nested
block.

Related help topics: BASICMETHODS
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