Delete a key and value from an OrderedDict

python dictionary ordereddictionary
Acoop picture Acoop · Nov 26, 2014 · Viewed 45.8k times · Source

I am trying to remove a key and value from an OrderedDict but when I use:

dictionary.popitem(key)

it removes the last key and value even when a different key is supplied. Is it possible to remove a key in the middle if the dictionary?

Answer

user2555451 picture user2555451 · Nov 26, 2014

Yes, you can use del:

del dct[key]

Below is a demonstration:

>>> from collections import OrderedDict
>>> dct = OrderedDict()
>>> dct['a'] = 1
>>> dct['b'] = 2
>>> dct['c'] = 3
>>> dct
OrderedDict([('a', 1), ('b', 2), ('c', 3)])
>>> del dct['b']
>>> dct
OrderedDict([('a', 1), ('c', 3)])
>>>

In fact, you should always use del to remove an item from a dictionary. dict.pop and dict.popitem are used to remove an item and return the removed item so that it can be saved for later. If you do not need to save it however, then using these methods is less efficient.

Related questions

Rename a dictionary key

Is there a way to rename a dictionary key, without reassigning its value to a new name and removing the old name key; and without iterating through dict key/value? In case of OrderedDict, do the same, while keeping that …

Read More
Accessing items in an collections.OrderedDict by index

Lets say I have the following code: import collections d = collections.OrderedDict() d['foo'] = 'python' d['bar'] = 'spam' Is there a way I can access the items in a numbered manner, like: d(0) #foo's Output d(1) #bar's Output

Read More
Right way to initialize an OrderedDict using its constructor such that it retains order of initial data?

What's the correct way to initialize an ordered dictionary (OD) so that it retains the order of initial data? from collections import OrderedDict # Obviously wrong because regular dict loses order d = OrderedDict({'b':2, 'a':1}) # An OD is represented by a …

Read More