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Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center
DeleteCases
  • See Also
    • Cases
    • DeleteElements
    • Nothing
    • ReplaceAll
    • Delete
    • DeleteMissing
    • Except
    • StringDelete
    • Threshold
  • Related Guides
    • Parts of Expressions
    • Pattern Matching Functions
    • Handling Arrays of Data
    • Elements of Lists
    • Function Composition & Operator Forms
    • Rules & Patterns
  • Tech Notes
    • Finding Expressions That Match a Pattern
    • See Also
      • Cases
      • DeleteElements
      • Nothing
      • ReplaceAll
      • Delete
      • DeleteMissing
      • Except
      • StringDelete
      • Threshold
    • Related Guides
      • Parts of Expressions
      • Pattern Matching Functions
      • Handling Arrays of Data
      • Elements of Lists
      • Function Composition & Operator Forms
      • Rules & Patterns
    • Tech Notes
      • Finding Expressions That Match a Pattern

DeleteCases[expr,pattern]

removes all elements of expr that match pattern.

DeleteCases[expr,pattern,levelspec]

removes all parts of expr on levels specified by levelspec that match pattern.

DeleteCases[expr,pattern,levelspec,n]

removes the first n parts of expr that match pattern.

DeleteCases[pattern]

represents an operator form of DeleteCases that can be applied to an expression.

Details and Options
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Options  
Heads  
Applications  
Possible Issues  
See Also
Tech Notes
Related Guides
Related Links
History
Cite this Page
BUILT-IN SYMBOL
  • See Also
    • Cases
    • DeleteElements
    • Nothing
    • ReplaceAll
    • Delete
    • DeleteMissing
    • Except
    • StringDelete
    • Threshold
  • Related Guides
    • Parts of Expressions
    • Pattern Matching Functions
    • Handling Arrays of Data
    • Elements of Lists
    • Function Composition & Operator Forms
    • Rules & Patterns
  • Tech Notes
    • Finding Expressions That Match a Pattern
    • See Also
      • Cases
      • DeleteElements
      • Nothing
      • ReplaceAll
      • Delete
      • DeleteMissing
      • Except
      • StringDelete
      • Threshold
    • Related Guides
      • Parts of Expressions
      • Pattern Matching Functions
      • Handling Arrays of Data
      • Elements of Lists
      • Function Composition & Operator Forms
      • Rules & Patterns
    • Tech Notes
      • Finding Expressions That Match a Pattern

DeleteCases

DeleteCases[expr,pattern]

removes all elements of expr that match pattern.

DeleteCases[expr,pattern,levelspec]

removes all parts of expr on levels specified by levelspec that match pattern.

DeleteCases[expr,pattern,levelspec,n]

removes the first n parts of expr that match pattern.

DeleteCases[pattern]

represents an operator form of DeleteCases that can be applied to an expression.

Details and Options

  • When used on an Association, DeleteCases deletes elements according to their values.
  • DeleteCases[pattern][expr] is equivalent to DeleteCases[expr,pattern].
  • With the option Heads->True, you can delete heads with DeleteCases. Deleting the head of a particular element in an expression is equivalent to applying FlattenAt to the expression at that point.
  • DeleteCases uses standard level specifications:
  • nlevels 1 through n
    Infinitylevels 1 through Infinity
    {n}level n only
    {n1,n2}levels n1 through n2
  • The default value for levelspec in DeleteCases is {1}.
  • A positive level n consists of all parts of expr specified by n indices.
  • A negative level -n consists of all parts of expr with depth n.
  • Level -1 consists of numbers, symbols, and other objects that do not have subparts.
  • Level 0 corresponds to the whole expression.
  • DeleteCases traverses the parts of expr in a depth-first order, with leaves visited before roots.

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (5)

Delete cases that match integers:

Use the operator form:

Delete elements from Association:

DeleteCases can access parts of the elements of an Association:

Deleting elements from a nested Association:

Scope  (2)

Delete elements matching an Association from a list:

Delete elements from a list matching a condition:

Options  (1)

Heads  (1)

Deleting the head f effectively flattens the expression:

Applications  (1)

Build a function that works like Complement, but preserving order and multiplicity:

Possible Issues  (1)

Deleting the head effectively flattens the expression:

Deleting the head in Association removes the entry:

See Also

Cases  DeleteElements  Nothing  ReplaceAll  Delete  DeleteMissing  Except  StringDelete  Threshold

Tech Notes

    ▪
  • Finding Expressions That Match a Pattern

Related Guides

    ▪
  • Parts of Expressions
  • ▪
  • Pattern Matching Functions
  • ▪
  • Handling Arrays of Data
  • ▪
  • Elements of Lists
  • ▪
  • Function Composition & Operator Forms
  • ▪
  • Rules & Patterns

Related Links

  • NKS|Online  (A New Kind of Science)

History

Introduced in 1991 (2.0) | Updated in 2014 (10.0)

Wolfram Research (1991), DeleteCases, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DeleteCases.html (updated 2014).

Text

Wolfram Research (1991), DeleteCases, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DeleteCases.html (updated 2014).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 1991. "DeleteCases." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2014. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DeleteCases.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (1991). DeleteCases. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DeleteCases.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_deletecases, author="Wolfram Research", title="{DeleteCases}", year="2014", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DeleteCases.html}", note=[Accessed: 01-May-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_deletecases, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={DeleteCases}, year={2014}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/DeleteCases.html}, note=[Accessed: 01-May-2026]}

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