Question: I have an app in which the main view is a `PopupWindow` with a couple of `ImageViews` and an `EditText` on top of them. My problem is when I enter a very long text and the text box expands down and pushing the image views out of the view and I can't see them, and in order to see them back I need to delete some text.

What is the proper way of overcoming this?

thanks.

Answer: 
There is a difference, and it has to do with whether that list is referenced from multiple places/names.

```
>>> a = [1, 2, 3]
>>> b = a
>>> del a[:]
>>> print(b)
[]

>>> a = [1, 2, 3]
>>> b = a
>>> a = []
>>> print(b)
[1, 2, 3]

```

Using `del a[:]` clears the *existing* list, which means anywhere it's referenced will become an empty list.

Using `a = []` sets `a` to point to a *new* empty list, which means that other places the original list is referenced will remain non-empty.

The key to understanding here is to realize that when you assign something to a variable, it just makes that name point to a thing. Things can have multiple names, and changing what a name points to doesn't change the thing itself.
Well, del uses just a little less space in the computer as the person above me implied. The computer still accepts the variable as the same code, except with a different value. However, when you variable is assigned something else, the computer assigns a completely different code ID to it in order to account for the change in memory required.