# List and Dictionary Helper | Shortcuts Library

> Add, replace, remove list or dictionary values

## What this shortcut does

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Run
List and Dictionary Helper
from your shortcut to modify a list or dictionary. It allows you to add, replace or remove an item using dot notation.
Working with a list
To delete an item from a list, pass a dictionary containing
index
and
list
to the shortcut. For example, to remove the second item from myList, pass
{"index":2, "list":myList}
. Use two
Set Dictionary Value
actions to create the dictionary; set
index
first, followed by
list
as shown in the image below. The shortcut returns a modified list.
To insert an item, pass a dictionary of
index
,
value
and
list
. Set
index
first then
value
and
list
. You can use a negative index to refer to an item from the end of the list. -1 is the last item, -2 is the second to last, etc. For example, to insert text "Zillion" between "Two" and "Three", you can pass
{"index":-2, "value":"Zillion", "list":myList}
as shown in the image. Zero index will append the value at the end.
To replace an item, first remove it and then insert the new value to the same index.
Working with a dictionary
To delete an item from a dictionary, pass a dictionary of
key
and
dictionary
. For example, to remove the
type
value from the second
phones
data, pass
{"key":"phones.2.type", "dictionary":myDict}
as shown in the image. Make sure that the type of myDict is Dictionary.
To add or replace an item, pass a dictionary of
key
,
value
and
dictionary
. For both lists and dictionaries, the value can be of any type; text, number, boolean, dictionary or list.
Notes
If a key contains a dot in its name, enclose it in double quotes (e.g.,
chapter."1.2".author
).
index
and
key
are interchangeable. That is, you can use
key
on a list and vice versa. Likewise,
list
and
dictionary
keys are interchangeable.
If you try to insert a value to a non-list item, the item will become a list and the new value will be inserted. For example, passing
key
or
index
animals.1
and
value
"cat" to
{"animals":"dog"}
will return
{"animals":["cat","dog"]}
. This is similar to how
Add to Variable
works.
You can use dot notation on a list to modify a dictionary inside. For example, passing
2.cat
as
index
or
key
to
["hi",{"cat":"Tom","mouse":"Jerry"}, 42]
will return
["hi",{"mouse":"Jerry"}, 42]
.
Also check out
Dictionary Action Builder
, another neat utility for shortcut developers.

## Compatibility

iPhone, iPad

## Required apps



[View this page](https://shortcutlibrary.app/shortcuts/list-and-dictionary-helper)

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