The del statement removes an element:
del d[key]
Note that this mutates the existing dictionary, so the contents of the dictionary changes for anybody else who has a reference to the same instance. To return a new dictionary, make a copy of the dictionary:
def removekey(d, key):
r = dict(d)
del r[key]
return r
The dict() constructor makes a shallow copy. To make a deep copy, see the copy module.
Note that making a copy for every dict del/assignment/etc. means you’re going from constant time to linear time, and also using linear space. For small dicts, this is not a problem. But if you’re planning to make lots of copies of large dicts, you probably want a different data structure, like a HAMT (as described in this answer).
pop mutates the dictionary.
>>> lol = {“hello”: “gdbye”}
>>> lol.pop(“hello”)
‘gdbye’
>>> lol
{}
If you want to keep the original you could just copy it.