How to remove items from a dictionary in Python
Dictionaries in Python are used to store information that comes in key-value pairs. A dictionary contains a key and its value.
Example
Each country ( key) has its capital (value), and in this context, the different countries can be a key, whereas their respective capitals are their values.
Let’s take a look at the code below:
countries={‘Ghana’: ’Accra’}
print(countries)
Code explanation
We create a dictionary named countries, where Ghana is the key, and Accra is the value.
Code output
{'Ghana': 'Accra'}
The code returns a dictionary as expected.
How to remove items from a dictionary
We can use the following methods to remove items from a dictionary in Python:
- The
delkeyword - The
clear()method - The
pop()method - The
popitem()method
The del keyword
The del keyword method uses the keyword from the dictionary to remove an item.
Example
countries={"Ghana": "Accra", "China": "Beijing"}# using the del keyworddel countries["China"]print(countries)
The clear() method
The clear() method clears all the items in the dictionary.
Example
countries={"Ghana": "Accra", "China": "Beijing"}# using the clear() methodcountries.clear()print(countries)
The pop() method
The pop method uses the keyword from the given dictionary to remove an item from that dictionary. The pop method is similar to the del keyword method because they both use the keyword from the dictionary.
Example
countries={"Ghana": "Accra", "China": "Beijing"}# using the pop() methodcountries.pop("China")print(countries)
The popitem() method
The popitem() removes the last item added to the dictionary.
Example
countries={"Ghana": "Accra", "China": "Beijing"}# using the clear() methodcountries.popitem()print(countries)
