# Delete dictionary from array if one key is empty
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-dictionary-from-array-if-one-key-is-empty/351863
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [January 26, 2024, 9:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-dictionary-from-array-if-one-key-is-empty/351863 "2024-01-26T09:17:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ITIC](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ITIC)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 9:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-dictionary-from-array-if-one-key-is-empty/351863/1 "2024-01-26T09:17:38Z")
Hi!
It's been a while since I last wrestled with logstash, and I can feel the rust!
I'm trying to delete an array element with `delete_if`, and I have trouble with it.
The element itself is a dictionary, and the condition to delete it is that one of the entries of this dictionary must be empty (or `nil`).
The data I get is a dictionary, `data`, which contains several key-value pairs. One of them, `features`, is itself a list of dictionaries. Said dictionaries contain several key-value pairs, one of which, `geometry`, is a dictionary containing two key-value pairs: `type` and `coordinates`.
```auto
data
{
key_1: val_1
features: [
{
key_1: val_1
geometry: {
type: "MultiPoint"
coordinates: [
1.3498...
43.349...
]
}
...
key_n: val:n
},
{...},
...
{...}
]
...
key_n: val_n
}
```
I need to delete those features which `geometry` is empty.
This is what I tried:
```auto
event.set('data_feat', event.get('[data][features]').delete_if {|a| ! a[geometry][type]})
event.set('[data][features]', 'data_feat')
```
Got this error:
"Ruby exception occurred: undefined local variable or method `geometry' ..."
What am I doing wrong? Any ideas?
Thank you in advance!
---
### Author:  [@yago82](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/yago82)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2024, 1:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-dictionary-from-array-if-one-key-is-empty/351863/2 "2024-01-26T13:01:30Z")
Hi,
try with this code:
```auto
event.set('data_feat', event.get('[data][features]').delete_if {|a| !a['geometry']['type']})
event.set('[data][features]', event.get('data_feat'))
```
Regards
---
### Author:  [@ITIC](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ITIC)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2024, 1:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-dictionary-from-array-if-one-key-is-empty/351863/3 "2024-01-29T13:08:00Z")
Thank you, yago82!
This did the trick!
I had to change the test, since checking for the (non) existence of field `[type]` inside of `[geometry]` gave me a new error:
```auto
Ruby exception occurred: undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass {:class=>"NoMethodError", :backtrace=>["(ruby filter code):6:in `block in filter_method'", "org/jruby/RubyArray.java:2869:in `delete_if'", ...
```
So I changed the test to `a['geometry'] == nil` and it worked perfectly!!
Than you!
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2024, 1:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/delete-dictionary-from-array-if-one-key-is-empty/351863/4 "2024-02-26T13:08:54Z")
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