What is right way to handle instantiated node removal from array? (godot 3.1)

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:information_source: Attention Topic was automatically imported from the old Question2Answer platform.
:bust_in_silhouette: Asked By Godotmus

I have bit of confusion what is the right way to handle instantiated node removal from array so no memory leaks or to much garbage collection would occur.

# this feels wrong??
my_node_array[5] = null 

# how about this, to temp variable or straight from array?
my_node = my_node_array[5]

# 1. way ?
get_parent().remove_child(my_node)
# 2. way or both??
my_node.queue_free()

# finally.. needed or not??
my_node_array[5] = null

#check to get state of array element ????
if my_node_array[5].is_instance_valid():  vs. if my_node_array[5] == null: