Python - Remove Dictionary Items

---

Using del Keyword

Python's del keyword deletes any object from the memory. Here we use it to delete a key-value pair in a dictionary.

Syntax

del dict['key']

Example

numbers = {10:"Ten", 20:"Twenty", 30:"Thirty",40:"Forty"}
print ("numbers dictionary before delete operation: \n", numbers)
del numbers[20]
print ("numbers dictionary before delete operation: \n", numbers)

It will produce the following output −

numbers dictionary before delete operation:
 {10: 'Ten', 20: 'Twenty', 30: 'Thirty', 40: 'Forty'}
numbers dictionary before delete operation:
 {10: 'Ten', 30: 'Thirty', 40: 'Forty'}

Example

The del keyword with the dict object itself removes it from memory.

numbers = {10:"Ten", 20:"Twenty", 30:"Thirty",40:"Forty"}
print ("numbers dictionary before delete operation: \n", numbers)
del numbers
print ("numbers dictionary before delete operation: \n", numbers)

It will produce the following output −

numbers dictionary before delete operation:
 {10: 'Ten', 20: 'Twenty', 30: 'Thirty', 40: 'Forty'}
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "C:\Users\mlath\examples\main.py", line 5, in <module>
  print ("numbers dictionary before delete operation: \n", numbers)
                                                           ^^^^^^^
NameError: name 'numbers' is not defined

Using pop() Method

The pop() method of dict class causes an element with the specified key to be removed from the dictionary.

Syntax

val = dict.pop(key)

Return value

The pop() method returns the value of the specified key after removing the key-value pair.

Example

numbers = {10:"Ten", 20:"Twenty", 30:"Thirty",40:"Forty"}
print ("numbers dictionary before pop operation: \n", numbers)
val = numbers.pop(20)
print ("nubvers dictionary after pop operation: \n", numbers)
print ("Value popped: ", val)

It will produce the following output −

numbers dictionary before pop operation: 
 {10: 'Ten', 20: 'Twenty', 30: 'Thirty', 40: 'Forty'}
nubvers dictionary after pop operation: 
 {10: 'Ten', 30: 'Thirty', 40: 'Forty'}
Value popped:  Twenty

Using popitem() Method

The popitem() method in dict() class doesn't take any argument. It pops out the last inserted key-value pair, and returns the same as a tuple

Syntax

val = dict.popitem()

Return Value

The popitem() method return a tuple contain key and value of the removed item from the dictionary

Example

numbers = {10:"Ten", 20:"Twenty", 30:"Thirty",40:"Forty"}
print ("numbers dictionary before pop operation: \n", numbers)
val = numbers.popitem()
print ("numbers dictionary after pop operation: \n", numbers)
print ("Value popped: ", val)

It will produce the following output −

numbers dictionary before pop operation: 
 {10: 'Ten', 20: 'Twenty', 30: 'Thirty', 40: 'Forty'}
numbers dictionary after pop operation: 
 {10: 'Ten', 20: 'Twenty', 30: 'Thirty'}
Value popped:  (40, 'Forty')

Using clear() Method

The clear() method in dict class removes all the elements from the dictionary object and returns an empty object.

Syntax

dict.clear()

Example

numbers = {10:"Ten", 20:"Twenty", 30:"Thirty",40:"Forty"}
print ("numbers dictionary before clear method: \n", numbers)
numbers.clear()
print ("numbers dictionary after clear method: \n", numbers)

It will produce the following output −

numbers dictionary before clear method: 
 {10: 'Ten', 20: 'Twenty', 30: 'Thirty', 40: 'Forty'}
numbers dictionary after clear method: 
 {}