Step-by-Step Guide to Deleting a Key-Value Pair from a Dictionary

Step-by-Step Guide to Deleting a Key-Value Pair from a Dictionary

To delete a key-value pair from a Python dictionary, you can use the del statement or the pop() method. Here are five examples showing how to do this:

  1. Using the del statement:
# Example 1
my_dict = {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
del my_dict['a']
print(my_dict)  # Output: {'b': 2, 'c': 3}
  1. Using the pop() method:
# Example 2
my_dict = {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
removed_value = my_dict.pop('b')
print(removed_value)  # Output: 2
print(my_dict)  # Output: {'a': 1, 'c': 3}
  1. Removing a non-existent key using del:
# Example 3
my_dict = {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
del my_dict['d']  # KeyError: 'd'
  1. Removing a non-existent key using pop():
# Example 4
my_dict = {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
removed_value = my_dict.pop('d', 'Key not found')
print(removed_value)  # Output: Key not found
  1. Removing and retrieving a key-value pair using pop() with default value:
# Example 5
my_dict = {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
removed_value = my_dict.pop('d', 'Key not found')
print(removed_value)  # Output: Key not found
print(my_dict)  # Output: {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}

These examples demonstrate how to remove key-value pairs from a dictionary using both del and pop() methods, and also handle cases where the key may not exist in the dictionary.