Does python garbage-collect at the end of an iteration in a loop?

Question

Please observe this simple code:

    import random
    while True:
        L = list( str(random.random()))

Question: if I let this

Answer 1

We can easily test this by adding a custom __del__ command to a class as watch what happens:

class WithDestructor(object):
   def __del__(self):
       print(f"Exploding {self}")

Q=None
for i in range(5):
    Q = WithDestructor()
    print(f"In loop {i}")

If cleanup only happened at the end of the loop, we'd get the loop output followed by the destructor output. Instead I get it interlaced, so the object in Q is getting immediately cleaned up when Q is reassigned.

In loop 0
Exploding <__main__.WithDestructor object at 0x7f93141176d8>
In loop 1
Exploding <__main__.WithDestructor object at 0x7f93141172b0>
In loop 2
Exploding <__main__.WithDestructor object at 0x7f93141176d8>
In loop 3
Exploding <__main__.WithDestructor object at 0x7f93141172b0>
In loop 4