What's the point of "arr.insert(index, value)", when "arr[index] = value" does the same thing?

Question

I don't see any immediate advantage to the method call over the direct assignment literal - particularly when it's actually more verbose, and not appreciably more readable. The only possible explanation I can see is for the sake of accessing private data in other people's implementations, but this doesn't seem sufficient.

Answer 1

If you have
arr = [1,2,3,4]

Using arr.insert(2,5) will insert a new element in the list and the result will be arr = [1,2,5,3,4]

And arr[2]=5 will replace the value in the position 2 which will result as arr = [1,2,5,4]

I hope that it helps

Answer 2

Okay, that wasn't immediately clear from their examples. Thanks!

Answer 3

I don't think one is better than the other, logically, but it makes it more convenient for the programmer to achieve the same result using whichever method is more intuitive to them.

Answer 4

Since the method call is an idiom without a clear, objective advantage in terms of verbosity; readability; expressivity; or performance, I'm trying to wrap my head around why it would have been implemented in the first place.