# Add the ability to declare an empty dict as \`{:}\`

**URL:** <https://discuss.python.org/t/add-the-ability-to-declare-an-empty-dict-as/25213>\
**Category:** Ideas\
**Created:** [March 27, 2023, 5:51am UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/add-the-ability-to-declare-an-empty-dict-as/25213 "2023-03-27T05:51:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 19

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**Author:** ![ucodery](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discuss.python.org/ucodery/32/4228_2.png) [@ucodery](https://discuss.python.org/u/ucodery)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 10:10pm UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/add-the-ability-to-declare-an-empty-dict-as/25213/19 "2023-03-28T22:10:11Z")

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I made a proposal with a modified grammar some years ago that would make `{,}` the empty set. If there was a real desire for this, a similar change could be made so that both `{,} == set()` and `{:} == dict()` such that `{}` could, eventually over a very long time, be removed.

One thing that actually changing the grammar unveiled was that once `{,}` becomes a legal literal, it becomes extremely easy to make `(,)` legal, which IMO is another wart on the language (parentheses don’t make tuples, commas do; oh, except for an empty tuple, then you must always use parentheses and no comma).

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