{"id":10140,"date":"2021-03-23T14:08:52","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T08:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pythonpool.com\/?p=10140"},"modified":"2026-07-13T12:32:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T07:02:50","slug":"python-list-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pythonpool.com\/python-list-pop\/","title":{"rendered":"Python list.pop(): Remove and Return Items Safely"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quick answer:<\/strong> list.pop() removes and returns one item, using the last item when no index is supplied. It is a natural stack operation; repeated pop(0) calls shift the remaining list and are usually better expressed with collections.deque.<\/p>\n

\"Python
list.pop() removes and returns one item; the default last-item behavior is useful for stacks, while front removals have a different performance tradeoff.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

list.pop()<\/code> removes an item from a Python list and returns that item. If you call it without an argument, it removes the last item. If you pass an index, it removes the item at that position.<\/p>\n

The two details that matter most are safety and intent: pop()<\/code> changes the original list, and it raises IndexError<\/code> if the list is empty or the index is invalid.<\/p>\n

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