title: Is it good idea to change variable to 0 to save memory in python?
body: <p>I've searched and couldn't find any good answer. Let's say that I have some list that have thousands of entries or something else that consumes a lot of memory. Is it good idea to change this list/etc. value to 0...</p>
  
  <pre><code>oldlst = 0
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>...if it's no longer needed (or won't be updated in a very long time) or should I leave it alone in program. Or maybe there is better way to handle this.</p>
  
  <p>Example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>L = range(50*2000*1000)
  raw_input("Press Enter")
  L = 0
  print L
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I run this command I use 838.1 MB of RAM
  after pressing enter and changing L to just 0 I release some of the memory taken</p>