Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Python Python Basics (2015) Python Data Types list.remove()

Jörg Graupeter
Jörg Graupeter
427 Points
Posted by Jörg Graupeter
Jörg Graupeter
427 Points

how do I remove brakets inside brackets in a list?

see above

lists.py 
states = [
    'ACTIVE',
    ['red', 'green', 'blue'],
    'CANCELLED',
    'FINISHED',
    5,
]
states.remove(5)
states.remove('red', 'green', 'blue')

1 Answer

Marek Zakrzewski
Marek Zakrzewski
2,920 Points
Marek Zakrzewski
Marek Zakrzewski
2,920 Points

In this case, what you're trying to remove is a list within a list, so in order to remove it, you need to use the entire list, including brackets:

states.remove(['red', 'green', 'blue'])

If you don't include the brackets, the remove function will think that you're trying to paste 3 arguments into it, while you're just trying to remove an item which is an list, not 3 separate items.

From Python documentation:

list.remove(x)
#Remove the first item from the list whose value is x. It is an error if there is no such item.