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(guile.info)Removing Alist Entries

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Removing Alist Entries
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To remove the element from an association list whose key matches a
specified key, use `assq-remove!', `assv-remove!' or `assoc-remove!'
(depending, as usual, on the level of equality required between the key
that you specify and the keys in the association list).

As with `assq-set!' and friends, the specified alist may or may not be
modified destructively, and the only safe way to update a variable
containing the alist is to `set!' it to the value that `assq-remove!'
and friends return.

     address-list
     =>
     (("bob" . "11 Newington Avenue") ("mary" . "34 Elm Road")
      ("james" . "1a London Road"))
     
     (set! address-list (assoc-remove! address-list "mary"))
     address-list
     =>
     (("bob" . "11 Newington Avenue") ("james" . "1a London Road"))

Note that, when `assq/v/oc-remove!' is used to modify an association
list that has been constructed only using the corresponding
`assq/v/oc-set!', there can be at most one matching entry in the alist,
so the question of multiple entries being removed in one go does not
arise.  If `assq/v/oc-remove!' is applied to an association list that
has been constructed using `acons', or an `assq/v/oc-set!' with a
different level of equality, or any mixture of these, it removes only
the first matching entry from the alist, even if the alist might
contain further matching entries.  For example:

     (define address-list '())
     (set! address-list (assq-set! address-list "mary" "11 Elm Street"))
     (set! address-list (assq-set! address-list "mary" "57 Pine Drive"))
     address-list
     =>
     (("mary" . "57 Pine Drive") ("mary" . "11 Elm Street"))
     
     (set! address-list (assoc-remove! address-list "mary"))
     address-list
     =>
     (("mary" . "11 Elm Street"))

In this example, the two instances of the string "mary" are not the same
when compared using `eq?', so the two `assq-set!' calls add two
distinct entries to `address-list'.  When compared using `equal?', both
"mary"s in `address-list' are the same as the "mary" in the
`assoc-remove!' call, but `assoc-remove!' stops after removing the
first matching entry that it finds, and so one of the "mary" entries is
left in place.

 - primitive: assq-remove! alist key
 - primitive: assv-remove! alist key
 - primitive: assoc-remove! alist key
     Delete the first entry in ALIST associated with KEY, and return
     the resulting alist.