Delete Function
Since foo
is a global, you can delete it from the global definitions:
def delete_func(func):
del globals()[func.func_name]
Deleting a function isn't really something you do to the function itself; it's something you do to the namespace it lives in. (Just as removing the number 3 from a list isn't something you do to the number 3, it's something you do to the list.)
Suppose you say
def foo(x): return 1
bar = foo
Then (more or less) you have two names, foo
and bar
, for the exact same function. Now suppose you call delete_function(foo)
or delete_function(bar)
. The exact same thing, namely a function object, is being passed to delete_function
. But what you actually want to remove is the association between the name foo
or bar
and that object -- and there's no possible way delete_function
(however you define it) can know whether it's foo
or bar
or something else you're wanting to get rid of.
(Well ... Actually, there is. There are nasty hacky things you can do that would let the code in delete_function
know more about how it was called. But don't even think about thinking about them.)
So. Your options are as follows. (1) Nasty hacky things, as just mentioned. Don't. (2) Pass delete_function
not the function object but information about the name of the function and the thing you're trying to delete it from. This is ugly and ungainly. (3) Don't bother.
I strongly recommend #3, unless the only reason you're doing this is to learn more about how Python works. In the latter case, a good place to begin might be http://docs.python.org/reference/executionmodel.html.