Iterate through a Python Dictionary and delete a particular element if matches a specific string

Question

I have a dictionary like-

mydict = {
           'users':
              [
                {
                  'userid': 'u1234'
                  'name': 'user1'
                },
                {
                  'userid': 'u0007'
                  'name': 'user2'
                }                 
              ]
            }

I want a functionality such that if I pass userid=u1234 it should iterate through the dictionary and delete the details for that userid from the dictionary and then write the output to a file.

Hi @user2242660, here's a relevant discussion about finding dictionary keys using values: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8023306/get-key-by-value-in-dictionary — oh_my_lawdy, Jul 26 '21 at 13:32

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 26 '21 at 13:21

2

Try the following code:-

for i,v in mydict.items():
    for a in v:
        if (a['userid'] == 'u1234'):
            v.remove(a)

Then use following code to write to a file:-

import json
with open('result.json', 'w') as fp:
    json.dump(mydict, fp)

answered Jul 26 '21 at 13:21

Muhammad Adeel

125
2

Awesome, thanks for the prompt response. It is working like a charm. – user2242660 Jul 26 '21 at 13:25

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 26 '21 at 13:24

1

This code will handle your request of deleting a specific user:

for user in mydict['users']:
    if user['userid'] == 'u1234':
        mydict['users'].remove(user)

answered Jul 26 '21 at 13:24

Jacob

964
7
16

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 26 '21 at 13:33

I'd simplify:

user_list = myDict['users']
for usr_dict in user_list:
  if usr_dict['name'] = name_to_remove:
    myDict['users'].remove(usr_dict)

Also, zooming out one step to improve lookup efficiency (and loop simplicity), you could [re-]structure your myDict as so:

users_dict = {
       'u1234': {
              'userid': 'u1234'
              'name': 'user1'
        },
        'u0007': {
              'userid': 'u0007'
              'name': 'user2'
        }
}

then your loop could become:

for uid, obj in users_dict.items():
  if obj['name'] == username_to_delete:
    users_dict.remove(uid)

Iterate through a Python Dictionary and delete a particular element if matches a specific string

3 Answers3