First question

However, whenever there's more than two elements and I enter anything higher than two, it doesn't delete anything. Even worse, when I enter the number one, it deletes everything but the zero index(whenever the array has more than two elements in it).

Inside delete_data() you have two lines reading i = + 1, which just assignes +1 (i.e., 1) to i. Thus, you're never increasing your index. You probably meant to write either i = i+1 or i += 1.

def delete_data():    # Deletes an element from the array
    view_data()
    new_data = []
    with open(filename, "r") as f:
        data = json.load(f)
        data_length = len(data) - 1
    print("Which index number would you like to delete?")
    delete_option = input(f"Select a number 0-{data_length}: ")
    i = 0
    for entry in data:
        if i == int(delete_option):
            i += 1  # <-- here
        else:
            new_data.append(entry)
            i += 1  # <-- and here

    with open(filename, "w") as f:
        json.dump(new_data, f, indent=4)

Second question: further improvements

Is there a better way to implement that in my Python script?

First, you can get rid of manually increasing i by using the builtin enumerate generator. Second, you could make your functions reusable by giving them parameters - where does the filename in your code example come from?

# view_data() should probably receive `filename` as a parameter
def view_data(filename: str):   # Prints JSON Array to screen
    with open(filename, "r") as f:
        data = json.load(f)
        # iterate over i and data simultaneously
        # alternatively, you could just remove i
        for i, item in enumerate(data):
            name = item["name"]
            chromebook = item["chromebook"]
            check_out = item["time&date"]
            print(f"Index Number: {i}")
            print(f"Name : {name}")
            print(f"Chromebook : {chromebook}")
            print(f"Time Of Checkout: {check_out} ")
            print("\n\n")
            # not needed anymore: i = i + 1

# view_data() should probably receive `filename` as a parameter
def delete_data(filename: str):    # Deletes an element from the array
    view_data()
    new_data = []
    with open(filename, "r") as f:
        data = json.load(f)
        data_length = len(data) - 1
    print("Which index number would you like to delete?")
    delete_option = input(f"Select a number 0-{data_length}: ")
    # iterate over i and data simultaneously
    for i, entry in enumerate(data):
        if i != int(delete_option):
            new_data.append(entry)

    with open(filename, "w") as f:
        json.dump(new_data, f, indent=4)

Furthermore, you could replace that for-loop by a list comprehension, which some may deem more "pythonic":

new_data = [entry for i, entry in enumerate(data) if i != int(delete_option)]
Answer from Valentin Kuhn on Stack Overflow
Top answer
1 of 3
3

First question

However, whenever there's more than two elements and I enter anything higher than two, it doesn't delete anything. Even worse, when I enter the number one, it deletes everything but the zero index(whenever the array has more than two elements in it).

Inside delete_data() you have two lines reading i = + 1, which just assignes +1 (i.e., 1) to i. Thus, you're never increasing your index. You probably meant to write either i = i+1 or i += 1.

def delete_data():    # Deletes an element from the array
    view_data()
    new_data = []
    with open(filename, "r") as f:
        data = json.load(f)
        data_length = len(data) - 1
    print("Which index number would you like to delete?")
    delete_option = input(f"Select a number 0-{data_length}: ")
    i = 0
    for entry in data:
        if i == int(delete_option):
            i += 1  # <-- here
        else:
            new_data.append(entry)
            i += 1  # <-- and here

    with open(filename, "w") as f:
        json.dump(new_data, f, indent=4)

Second question: further improvements

Is there a better way to implement that in my Python script?

First, you can get rid of manually increasing i by using the builtin enumerate generator. Second, you could make your functions reusable by giving them parameters - where does the filename in your code example come from?

# view_data() should probably receive `filename` as a parameter
def view_data(filename: str):   # Prints JSON Array to screen
    with open(filename, "r") as f:
        data = json.load(f)
        # iterate over i and data simultaneously
        # alternatively, you could just remove i
        for i, item in enumerate(data):
            name = item["name"]
            chromebook = item["chromebook"]
            check_out = item["time&date"]
            print(f"Index Number: {i}")
            print(f"Name : {name}")
            print(f"Chromebook : {chromebook}")
            print(f"Time Of Checkout: {check_out} ")
            print("\n\n")
            # not needed anymore: i = i + 1

# view_data() should probably receive `filename` as a parameter
def delete_data(filename: str):    # Deletes an element from the array
    view_data()
    new_data = []
    with open(filename, "r") as f:
        data = json.load(f)
        data_length = len(data) - 1
    print("Which index number would you like to delete?")
    delete_option = input(f"Select a number 0-{data_length}: ")
    # iterate over i and data simultaneously
    for i, entry in enumerate(data):
        if i != int(delete_option):
            new_data.append(entry)

    with open(filename, "w") as f:
        json.dump(new_data, f, indent=4)

Furthermore, you could replace that for-loop by a list comprehension, which some may deem more "pythonic":

new_data = [entry for i, entry in enumerate(data) if i != int(delete_option)]
2 of 3
3

There are easier ways to delete an element by index from a Python list.

Given li = ["a", "b", "c"], you can delete element 1 ("b") by index in (at least) the following ways:

li.pop(1) # pop takes an index (defaults to last) and removes and returns the element at that index

del li[1] # the del keyword will also remove an element from a list

So, here's some updated code:

def view_data():   # Prints JSON Array to screen
    with open(filename, "r") as f:
        data = json.load(f)
        i = 0
        for item in data:
            name = item["name"]
            chromebook = item["chromebook"]
            check_out = item["time&date"]
            print(f"Index Number: {i}")
            print(f"Name : {name}")
            print(f"Chromebook : {chromebook}")
            print(f"Time Of Checkout: {check_out} ")
            print("\n\n")
            i = i + 1

def delete_data():    # Deletes an element from the array
    view_data()
    with open(filename, "r") as f:
        data = json.load(f)
        data_length = len(data) - 1
    print("Which index number would you like to delete?")
    delete_option = input(f"Select a number 0-{data_length}: ")
    del data[int(delete_option)] # or data.pop(int(delete_option))

    with open(filename, "w") as f:
        json.dump(data, f, indent=4)
Discussions

How can I remove the [] from a json array of json objects?
That’s not valid json, so I doubt there is anything built in for that. You could iterate through the list yourself, convert each value in the list to json and write each row to the file separately More on reddit.com
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9
1
September 15, 2022
python - Delete an element in a JSON object - Stack Overflow
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November 16, 2020
Python Remove element from json if value exists - Stack Overflow
0 How can I remove an entire entry from a JSON file based on a match for the value of a key in Python More on stackoverflow.com
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March 30, 2017
python - Removing JSON property in array of objects - Stack Overflow
I have a JSON array that I'm cleaning up in Python. I want to remove the imageData property: More on stackoverflow.com
🌐 stackoverflow.com
October 7, 2018
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Processing
processing.org › reference › JSONArray_remove_.html
remove() / Reference / Processing.org
January 1, 2021 - // // [ // { // "id": 0, // "species": "Capra hircus", // "name": "Goat" // }, // { // "id": 1, // "species": "Panthera pardus", // "name": "Leopard" // }, // { // "id": 2, // "species": "Equus zebra", // "name": "Zebra" // } // ] JSONArray values; void setup() { values = loadJSONArray("data.json"); values.remove(0); // Remove the array's first element for (int i = 0; i < values.size(); i++) { JSONObject animal = values.getJSONObject(i); int id = animal.getInt("id"); String species = animal.getString("species"); String name = animal.getString("name"); println(id + ", " + species + ", " + name); } } // Sketch prints: // 1, Panthera pardus, Leopard // 2, Equus zebra, Zebra
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnpython › how can i remove the [] from a json array of json objects?
r/learnpython on Reddit: How can I remove the [] from a json array of json objects?
September 15, 2022 -

I have to dump a bunch of json objects to a file like this

list_content = [] 
with open("mylist.json", "w") as f:
        json.dump(list_content, f, indent=4)

The json looks like this

[
{ "ABC" : [$content]},
{ "DEF" : [$content]}
]

But i need it too look like this

{

"ABC" : [$content] , "DEF" : [$content]

}

How can I achieve it where it can dump to a file without the square brackets?

Top answer
1 of 2
95

Let's assume you want to overwrite the same file:

import json

with open('data.json', 'r') as data_file:
    data = json.load(data_file)

for element in data:
    element.pop('hours', None)

with open('data.json', 'w') as data_file:
    data = json.dump(data, data_file)

dict.pop(<key>, not_found=None) is probably what you where looking for, if I understood your requirements. Because it will remove the hours key if present and will not fail if not present.

However I am not sure I understand why it makes a difference to you whether the hours key contains some days or not, because you just want to get rid of the whole key / value pair, right?

Now, if you really want to use del instead of pop, here is how you could make your code work:

import json

with open('data.json') as data_file:
    data = json.load(data_file)

for element in data:
    if 'hours' in element:
        del element['hours']

with open('data.json', 'w') as data_file:
    data = json.dump(data, data_file)

EDIT So, as you can see, I added the code to write the data back to the file. If you want to write it to another file, just change the filename in the second open statement.

I had to change the indentation, as you might have noticed, so that the file has been closed during the data cleanup phase and can be overwritten at the end.

with is what is called a context manager, whatever it provides (here the data_file file descriptor) is available ONLY within that context. It means that as soon as the indentation of the with block ends, the file gets closed and the context ends, along with the file descriptor which becomes invalid / obsolete.

Without doing this, you wouldn't be able to open the file in write mode and get a new file descriptor to write into.

I hope it's clear enough...

SECOND EDIT

This time, it seems clear that you need to do this:

with open('dest_file.json', 'w') as dest_file:
    with open('source_file.json', 'r') as source_file:
        for line in source_file:
            element = json.loads(line.strip())
            if 'hours' in element:
                del element['hours']
            dest_file.write(json.dumps(element))
2 of 2
2
with open('writing_file.json', 'w') as w:
    with open('reading_file.json', 'r') as r:
        for line in r:
            element = json.loads(line.strip())
            if 'hours' in element:
                del element['hours']
            w.write(json.dumps(element))

this is the method i use..

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Tutorialink
python.tutorialink.com › how-to-delete-json-object-using-python
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Tutorialink Provides easy to understand tutorials for most of programming language for GTU Computer Student.
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Bobby Hadz
bobbyhadz.com › blog › python-delete-json-object-from-list
How to Delete a JSON object from a List in Python | bobbyhadz
Parse the JSON object into a Python list of dictionaries. Use the enumerate() function to iterate over the list. Check if each dictionary is the one you want to remove and use the pop() method to remove the matching dict.
🌐
Raspberry Pi Forums
forums.raspberrypi.com › board index › programming › python
Trying to remove some elements from JSON data - Raspberry Pi Forums
import json response = """ {"ignoreMe": "404", "data" : [ {"name": "Bob", "language": "English"}, {"name": "Sally", "language": "German"}, [ { "language" : "deep nested" } ] ] } """ response_object = json.loads(response) print(response_object) # # recursive scanning # def scan_for_element( o, name): res = [] if isinstance(o, dict): for k in o: if k == name: res.append(o[k]) r = scan_for_element( o[k], name) res.extend( r) if isinstance(o, list): for k in o: r = scan_for_element( k, name) res.extend( r) return res result = scan_for_element(response_object, 'language') print("scan result", result)
Top answer
1 of 5
29

Here's a complete example that loads the JSON file, removes the target object, and then outputs the updated JSON object to file.

#!/usr/bin/python                                                               

# Load the JSON module and use it to load your JSON file.                       
# I'm assuming that the JSON file contains a list of objects.                   
import json
obj  = json.load(open("file.json"))

# Iterate through the objects in the JSON and pop (remove)                      
# the obj once we find it.                                                      
for i in xrange(len(obj)):
    if obj[i]["ename"] == "mark":
        obj.pop(i)
        break

# Output the updated file with pretty JSON                                      
open("updated-file.json", "w").write(
    json.dumps(obj, sort_keys=True, indent=4, separators=(',', ': '))
)

The main point is that we find the object by iterating through the objects in the loaded list, and then pop the object off the list once we find it. If you need to remove more than one object in the list, then you should store the indices of the objects you want to remove, and then remove them all at once after you've reached the end of the for loop (you don't want to modify the list while you iterate through it).

2 of 5
12

The proper way to json is to deserialize it, modify the created objects, and then, if needed, serialize them back to json. To do so, use the json module. In short, use <deserialized object> = json.loads(<some json string>) for reading json and <json output> = json.dumps(<your object>) to create json strings. In your example this would be:

import json
o = json.loads("""[
    {
        "ename": "mark",
        "url": "Lennon.com"
    },
    {
        "ename": "egg",
        "url": "Lennon.com"
    }
]""")
# kick out the unwanted item from the list
o = filter(lambda x: x['ename']!="mark", o)
output_string = json.dumps(o)
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GitHub
gist.github.com › nlohmann › c899442d8126917946580e7f84bf7ee7
Remove empty arrays, objects or null elements from a JSON value · GitHub
Remove empty arrays, objects or null elements from a JSON value · Raw · remove_empty_elements.py · This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
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Quora
quora.com › How-do-I-remove-a-JSON-object-from-a-JSON-array
How to remove a JSON object from a JSON array - Quora
Answer: There are no such things. JSON uses human-readable text to encode data. Some strong-typed languages such as Java define a JSONObject class and a JSONArray class, but those are data types defined by the JSON encoding and decoding library that’s used in the language.
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GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › how-to-remove-key-value-pair-from-a-json-file-in-python
How to Remove Key-Value Pair from a JSON File in Python | GeeksforGeeks
April 28, 2025 - The task of adding a key-value pair to a dictionary in Python involves inserting new pairs or updating existing ones. This operation allows us to expand the dictionary by adding new entries or modify the value of an existing key.For example, starting with dictionary d = {'key1': 'geeks', 'key2': 'fo ... We are given a dictionary we need to remove the Nth element from the Kth key value.
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Medium
mae-morano-64788.medium.com › editing-deleting-and-adding-elements-to-a-json-file-using-python-5615ea6a0ace
Editing, Deleting and Adding Elements to a JSON file using Python | by Mae Morano | Medium
September 29, 2020 - This function simply does one thing and that is to delete an entire question in the JSON file. It will delete including the choices and answers. You might be wondering why in every function I have above, it always end calling the game_on() function.