python: how to change the name of a key in a dictionary

Question

My dict is a dict of {str: {str: list of str}}
ex:

{'hii':{'bye': [1, 2]}}

what i want:

{'hi':{'bye': [1, 2]}}

Is there a way to change the 'hii' to just 'hi'?

what I've tried only edits the values and not the keys.

There's no way to change keys as such. You'll need to add a new key with the same value, then delete the old key. — BrenBarn, Nov 30 '13 at 19:34
**See also**: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30720673/renaming-the-keys-of-a-dictionary — dreftymac, May 13 '17 at 06:29

score 17 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 30 '13 at 19:39

17

You do need to remove and re-add, but you can do it one go with pop:

d['hi'] = d.pop('hii')

answered Nov 30 '13 at 19:39

Daniel Roseman

588,541
66
880
895

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 30 '13 at 19:38

2

You need to remove the old key/value pair and insert a new one:

d = {'hii': {'bye': [1, 2]}}
d['hi'] = d['hii']
del d['hii']

answered Nov 30 '13 at 19:38

Simeon Visser

118,920
18
185
180

1

`d.pop` is another option – alko Nov 30 '13 at 19:39

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 30 '13 at 20:05

2

You cannot change a key in a dictionary, because the key object must be hashable, and therefore immutable. Daniel Roseman's answer looks like the most elegant way of accomplishing your goal.

answered Nov 30 '13 at 20:05

Chris Drake

353
1
7

python: how to change the name of a key in a dictionary

3 Answers3