DICTIONARIE
S
KEY-VALUE
What is
Dictionary
It is another collection in Python but with different in
way of storing and accessing. Other collection like
list, tuple, string are having an index associated
with every element but Python Dictionary have a
“key” associated with every element. That‟s why
python dictionaries are known as KEY:VALUE pairs.
Like with English dictionary we search any word for
meaning associated with it, similarly in Python we
search for “key” to get its associated value rather
than searching for an index.
Creating a
Dictionary
Syntax to create dictionary:
dictionary_name = {key1:value,key2:value,
….} Example
>>> emp =
{"empno":1,"name":"Shahrukh","fee":1500000}
Her Keys are : “empno”, “name” and
e “fee”
Note: Values are: 1, “Shahrukh”, 1500000
1) Dictionary elements must be between curly brackets
2) Each value must be paired with key element
3) Each key-value pair must be separated by
comma(,)
Creating a
dictionary
Dict1 = {} # empty dictionary
DaysInMonth={"Jan":31,"Feb":28,"Mar":31,"Apr":31
"May":31,"Jun":30,"Jul":31,"Aug":31
"Sep":30,"Oct":31,"Nov":30,"Dec":31}
Note: Keys of dictionary must of immutable type such as:
- A python string
- A number
- A tuple(containing only immutable entries)
- If we try to give mutable type as key, python will give an
error
- >>>dict2 = {[2,3]:”abc”} #Error
Accessing elements of
Dictionary
To access Dictionary elements we need the “key”
>>>mydict={'empno':1,'name':'Shivam','dept':'sales','salary':25000}
>>> mydict['salary']
25000
Note: if you try to
access “key” which is
not in the dictionary,
python
will raise an error
>>>mydict[„comm‟
]
#Error
Traversing a
Dictionary
Python allows to apply “for” loop to traverse every
element of dictionary based on their “key”. For
loop will get every key of dictionary and we can
access every element based on their key.
mydict={'empno':1,'name':'Shivam','dept':'sales','salary':25000}
for key in mydict:
print(key,'=',mydict[key])
Accessing keys and values
simultaneously
>>> mydict={'empno':1,'name':'Shivam','dept':'sales','salary':25000}
>>>mydict.keys()
dict_keys(['empno', 'name', 'dept', 'salary'])
>>>mydict.values()
dict_values([1, 'Shivam', 'sales', 25000])
We can convert the sequence returned by keys() and values() by using list()
as shown below:
>>> list(mydict.keys())
['empno', 'name', 'dept', 'salary']
>>> list(mydict.values())
[1, 'Shivam', 'sales',
25000]
Characteristics of a
Dictionary
Unordered set
A dictionary is a unordered set of key:value pair
Not a sequence
Unlike a string, tuple, and list, a dictionary is not a sequence
because it is unordered set of elements. The sequences are
indexed by a range of ordinal numbers. Hence they are
ordered but a dictionary is an unordered collection
Indexed by Keys, Not Numbers
Dictionaries are indexed by keys. Keys are immutable
type
Characteristics of a
Dictionary
Keys must be unique
Each key within dictionary must be unique. However two unique
keys can have same values.
>>> data={1:100, 2:200,3:300,4:200}
Mutable
Like lists, dictionary are also mutable. We can change the value
of a certain “key” in place
Data[3]=400
>>>Data
So, to change value of dictionary the format is :
DictionaryName[“key” / key ]=new_value
You can not only change but you can add new key:value pair :
Adding elements to
Dictionary
You can add new element to dictionary as :
dictionaryName[“key”] = value
Updating elements in
Dictionary
Dictionaryname[“key”]=value
>>> data={1:100, 2:200,3:300,4:200}
>>> data[3]=1500
>>> data[3] # 1500
Deleting elements from
Dictionary
del dictionaryName[“Key”]
>>> D1 = {1:10,2:20,3:30,4:40}
>>> del D1[2]
>>> D1
1:10,3:30,4:4
0
• If you try to remove the item whose key does
not exists, the python runtime error occurs.
• Del D1[5] #Error
pop() elements from
Dictionary
dictionaryName.pop([“Key”])
>>> D1 = {1:10,2:20,3:30,4:40}
>>> D1.pop(2)
1:10,3:30,4:40
Note: if key passed to pop() doesn‟t
exists then python will raise an exception.
Checking the existence of
key
We can check the existence of key in dictionary
using “in” and “not in”.
>>>alpha={"a":"apple","b":"boy","c":"cat","d":"
dog"}
>>> 'a' in alpha
True
>>>‟e‟ in alpha
False
>>>‟e‟ not in
alpha
True
Checking the existence of
key
If you pass “value” of dictionary to search using “in”
it will return False
>>>‟apple‟ in
alpha False
To search for a value
we have to search in
dict.values()
>>>‟apple‟ in
alpha.values()
Dictionary functions and
methods
len() : it return the length of dictionary i.e. the
count of elements (key:value pairs) in dictionary
>>>alpha = {'a': 'apple', 'b': 'boy', 'c': 'cat', 'd':
'dog'}
>>> len(alpha)
4
clear() : this method removes all items from
dictionary and dictionary becomes empty dictionary
>>>alpha.clear()
>>>alpha # {}
Dictionary functions and
methods
However if you use “del” to delete dictionary it will
remove dictionary from memory
>>>alpha = {'a': 'apple', 'b': 'boy', 'c': 'cat', 'd':
'dog'}
>>>del alpha
>>>alpha #Error „alpha‟ is not defined
get() : this method is used value of given key, if key
not found it raises an exception
>>>alpha.get("b # boy alpha[‘b’]
‟) #Error, nothing will
>>>alpha.get("z‟) print
Dictionary functions and
methods
>>>alpha.get(„z‟,‟not found‟)
Not found
items() : this method returns all the items in
the dictionary s a sequence of (key,value) list
>>>alpha = {'a': 'apple', 'b': 'boy', 'c': 'cat',
'd': 'dog'}
>>> mylist = list(alpha.items())
>>>for item in mylist:
print(item)
Dictionary functions and
methods
>>>alpha = {'a': 'apple', 'b': 'boy', 'c': 'cat', 'd': 'dog'}
>>> mytuple = alpha.items()
>>>for key,value in mytuple:
print(key,value)
keys() : this method return all the keys in
the dictionary as a sequence of keys(not in list form)
>>> alpha.keys()
dict_keys(['a', 'b', 'c',
'd'])
Dictionary functions and
methods
>>>alpha = {'a': 'apple', 'b': 'boy', 'c': 'cat', 'd': 'dog'}
values() : this method return all the values in the
dictionary as a sequence of keys(a list form)
>>> alpha.values()
dict_values(['apple', 'boy', 'cat', 'dog'])
Update() method : this method merges the key:value
pari from the new dictionary into original dictionary,
adding or replacing as needed. The items in the new
dictionary are added to the old one and override, the
items already present in the dictionary
Example of
update
>>> d1={1:100,2:200,3:300,4:400}
>>> d2={1:111,2:222,5:555,4:444}
>>> d1.update(d2)
>>> d1
{1: 111, 2: 222, 3: 300, 4: 444, 5: 555}
>>>d2
{1: 111, 2: 222, 5: 555, 4: 444}
It is equivalent to:
for key in d2.keys():
d1[key] =
d2[key]
Dictionary functions and
methods
copy() : as the name suggest, it will create a copy of dictionary.
Popitem() : it will remove the last dictionary item are
return key,value.
max() : this function return highest value in dictionary, this
will
work only if all the values in dictionary is of numeric type
Dictionary functions and
methods
min() : this function return lowest value in dictionary, this
will work only if all the values in dictionary is of numeric type.
sorted() : this function is used to sort the key or value of dictionary
in either ascending or descending order. By default it will sort the
keys.
Sorting the keys
Dictionary functions and
methods
Sorting values in Sorting values in
ascending descending
