Assuming, the file in which you have your JSON is called file.json:

import json
with open('file.json') as f:
    d = json.load(f)
    for key, value in d.items():
        del value['id']
        d[key] = value

Alternative you can use the following:

import json
with open('file.json') as f:
    d = json.load(f)
    for key, value in d.items():
        value.pop('id', None) // this will not crash if the element has no key 'id'
Answer from lmiguelvargasf on Stack Overflow
🌐
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)
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GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › python › 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
July 23, 2025 - The script checks if the key exists in the JSON data before removal, and if found, it prints the removed key and its corresponding value. The updated JSON data is then saved to a new file, 'output.json', preserving the modifications made during the removal process.
Discussions

Python, delete JSON element having specific key from a loop - Stack Overflow
Related: Remove element from JSON list... ... juanpa.arrivillaga, thank you, your explanation "that variable is simply re-created" brings the light here. I see one workaround: copy all elements except 'bad' to newly created collection, and then substitute it instead of old one. Not optimal solution but I'll use it if no easier approach is suggested by someone. ... One of approaches from Remove element from list when using enumerate() in python ... More on stackoverflow.com
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September 5, 2018
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
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October 7, 2018
How to remove an element from a JSON array using Python? - Stack Overflow
I'm currently trying to make a Chromebook rental application for my high school that stores checkout information in a JSON file. Everything works except removing data from the JSON array. I found a More on stackoverflow.com
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how to delete json object using python? - Stack Overflow
I am using python to delete and update a JSON file generated from the data provided by user, so that only few items should be stored in the database. I want to delete a particular object from the J... More on stackoverflow.com
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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 handles just the selection of a particular question in the JSON string. I had created this function because I realize for my edit and delete function I needed to select a question. Instead of repeating the code inside the edit and delete function, I could just made one function to be reused by the two functions.
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Like Geeks
likegeeks.com › home › python › remove elements from json arrays in python
Remove Elements from JSON arrays in Python
January 22, 2024 - The .remove() method allows you to remove a JSON element based on its value rather than its index · Suppose you want to remove a specific package by its value.
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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
The filter() function takes a function and an iterable as arguments and constructs an iterator from the elements of the iterable for which the function returns a truthy value. The lambda function we passed to filter() gets called with each ...
Find elsewhere
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w3resource
w3resource.com › python-exercises › dictionary › python-data-type-dictionary-exercise-12.php
Python: Remove a key from a dictionary - w3resource
June 28, 2025 - # Create a dictionary 'myDict' ... print(myDict) ... Write a Python program to remove a specified key from a dictionary using the del statement....
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CopyProgramming
copyprogramming.com › howto › how-to-remove-key-value-pair-in-a-json-file-in-python
Removing Key-Value Pairs from JSON Files in Python: Complete 2026 Guide
November 26, 2025 - JSON in Python maps directly to dictionaries with the following type correspondences: JSON objects become Python dictionaries, arrays become lists, strings remain strings, numbers become integers or floats, boolean values become Python booleans, and null becomes None. The pop() method is the ...
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GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › how-to-delete-an-index-from-json-object
How to delete an index from JSON Object ? | GeeksforGeeks
September 13, 2024 - Now, to delete any index from this JSON object, we will learn different methods that are explained below - ... The delete operator in JavaScript is used to remove a property from an object. By using delete obj.key, you can delete a specific ...
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)
🌐
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
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 › usmansbk › 3d44c7228fa8cfe8097daa2f7e2b476c
Recursively remove json keys in an array · GitHub
Recursively remove json keys in an array. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.
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Python Forum
python-forum.io › thread-31431.html
finding and deleting json object
Hi I have this JSON- { 'ticker_tape_1': [ { 'id': 1, 'Title': 'Message 1', 'txt': 'This is message 1', 'start_date': '01/04/2020', 'start_time': '16:20', 'duration': ...
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CopyProgramming
copyprogramming.com › howto › python-remove-key-from-json-javascript-code-example
Remove Key from JSON: Python & JavaScript Methods, 2026 Best Practices
December 14, 2025 - JavaScript best practice: Prefer Object.fromEntries() with filter() for immutability; use ES6 destructuring for single-key removal in modern codebases. File safety: Always use file.truncate() in Python when writing back to files opened in read-write mode to prevent corruption. 2026 standard: Implement immutability-first approaches; never mutate original JSON objects directly in reactive frameworks or concurrent environments.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnpython › how to delete json block?
r/learnpython on Reddit: How to delete JSON block?
August 4, 2020 -

(Crosspost from r/redditdev.)

Hi!

I’m developing a Reddit bot that saves some comments that it finds to a JSON File and later uses them again and am using the following code to look through a JSON file called savedcomments.json where it looks for different entries (blocks) in the data bracket.

# Get JSON file as a python dict
with open("savedcomments.json", "r") as f:
    file_info = json.load(f)
# Iterate through all saved comments
for block in file_info["data"]:
    block_random_word = block["randomword"]
    if (random_word == block_random_word):
    (…)

# Append comment_data to the dict
file_info["data"].append(comment_data)

# Convert dict to JSON and save file
with open("savedcomments.json", "w") as f:
    json.dump(file_info, f)
   (…)

I want to delete the entire block for a specific comment (entry) after it’s been used but don’t know how as I’m still a relative beginner to Python (I really need to learn more and take some courses!).

This is what I came up with, but I doubt it works because it’s just a guess:

for block in file_info["data"]:
    del block
    return

I don’t know if that’d work, but it probably wouldn’t. Any help would be fantastically appreciated! 💙

More detailed information about my request in this comment.

🌐
CopyProgramming
copyprogramming.com › howto › how-to-remove-json-object-key-and-value
Python: Eliminating a JSON Object's Key and Value: A Guide
April 19, 2023 - How to remove json key value pair from json object, First, your Data is JSONArray, retrieving that by jsonObj.getJSONArray ("Data"), then access the array with get (0) [assuming, your array will contain only one entry like your example] and finally, removing that key by remove method.