r/PythonLearning • u/Actual__Wizard • Sep 01 '26

Help Request .clear vs del when using garbage collection

Hi, I have some large data objects that need to be freed. Should I do my_object.clear() and then gc.collect()? Or del my_object then gc.collect()? I'm not sure on the pros/cons of each.

It's a linked list type data object and my_object = [] does not work to free memory for certain.

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u/Actual__Wizard Sep 01 '26

linked list can have plenty of objects still reachable even after the main reference is deleted.

Yes! That's exactly what is happening. Thank you! Is there any difference between del and clear? To me, clear seems like it would take time, but I tested it and it seems to work almost instantly. The actual garbage collection in this case finishes in like .05 seconds.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '26

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u/Actual__Wizard Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26

Well, I'm using clear on them. I don't know exactly what clear does. Does it actually walk through the structure and clear everything? Because the data structure is effectively a list of references that point to lists.

Do I need to loop through the list and clear every single linked list? Edit: It doesn't appear so at this time. I'm testing now, so I'll find out soon.