Dictionary in Python

Dictionary

It is an unordered sequence/collection of items where each item is a key-value

pair.

Creating a dictionary

A dictionary is created by placing items, (i.e. key-value pair) inside curly braces.
Each key and value is separated by a colon and items separated by comma.

<dictionary_name>={key1: value1, key2:value2,………….., keyN:valueN}

Eg: student={1:’Aman’, 2: ‘Anandhu’, 3: ‘Aravind’}

Here 1:’Aman’ is the first item in dictionary student. There are three items.
1, 2, 3 are the keys and Aman, Anandhu, Aravind are the values.

Empty dictionary

Eg: d={}

Or

Using dict() as

D= dict()

To create a dictionary

Eg: To create a dictionary of students with rollno and name

Student={1:”Aman”,2:”Arjun”,3:”Amit”}

print(Student)

Or

Student={ }

Student[1]=”Aman”

Student[2]=”Arjun”

Student[3]=”Amit”

print(Student)
Accessing elements in a dictionary

To display the value of each item give the statement as,

print(Dictionary_name[key])

Eg: print(Student[1]) O/P: Aman

Traversing a dictionary

Student={1:”Aman”,2:”Arjun”,3:”Amit”}

for i in Student:

print(i, “:”, Student[i])

Append values in dictionary

student={1:”Aman”,2:”Arjun”,3:”Amit”}

student[4]=”Arav”

print(student) O/P: {1:”Aman”,2:”Arjun”,3:”Amit”, 4:”Arav”}

Update the elements

student[2]=”Alok”

print(student) O/P: {1:”Aman”,2:”Alok”,3:”Amit”, 4:”Arav”}

in AND not in operators in dictionary

Checks whether a particular key is in the dictionary or not.

student={1:”Aman”,2:”Arjun”,3:”Amit”}

1 in student O/P: True

2 not in student O/P: False

Dictionary Functions

1) Merge two dictionaries using update()

Two dictionaries can be merged into one by using update(). It merges the keys
and the values of one dictionary with another and overwrites the values of the
same key.

Syntax: dict_name1.update(dict_name2)
Eg 1: D1={1:10,2:20,3:30}

D2={4:40,5:50}

D1.update(D2)

print(D1) O/P: {1:10,2:20,3:30, 4:40,5:50 }

print(D2) O/P: {4:40,5:50 }

Eg 2: D1={1:10,2:20,3:30}

D2={2:30,4:40}

D1.update(D2)

print(D1) O/P: {1:10,2:30,3:30, 4:40}

print(D2) O/P: {2:30,4:40}

2) items()

Returns the content as a list of tuples having key-value pair

D1={1:10,2:20,3:30}

D1.items()

O/P dict_items([(1, 10), (2, 20), (3, 30)])

3) keys()

It returns a list of the key values in the dictionary

D1={1:10,2:20,3:30}

D1.keys()

O/P dict_keys([1, 2, 3])

4) values()

It returns a list of values from key-value pairs in a dictionary.

D1={1:10,2:20,3:30}

D1.values()

O/P dict_values([10, 20, 30])

5) len

It returns the number of items in the dictionary

Syntax: len(d)

6) fromkeys()

This function is used to create dictionary from a collection of keys (tuple/list).

The fromkeys()method returns a new dictionary with the given sequence of

elements as the keys of the dictionary.

Syntax

Dict_name= dict.fromkeys(keys, value)

Value is optional. If value is provided all the items will have the same value. If
not specified, value is set as None

Eg: seq=(1,2,3)

D1=dict.fromkeys(seq)

O/P: D1 ={1:None,2:None,3:None}

D1=dict.fromkeys(seq,20)

O/P: D1 ={1:20,2:20,3:20}

7) copy()

copy() method returns a shallow copy of the dictionary. Copy()method doesn't

take any parameters. It doesn't modify the original dictionary.

Difference in Using copy() method, and = Operator to Copy Dictionaries

When copy() method is used, a new dictionary is created which is filled with a
copy of the references from the original dictionary.

When = operator is used, a new reference to the original dictionary is created.

original = {1:'one', 2:'two'}

new = original

new.clear()
 print('new: ', new)

print('original: ', original)

O/P: new: {}

original: {}

****************************************

original = {1:'one', 2:'two'}

new = original.copy()

new.clear()

print('new: ', new)

print('original: ', original)

O/P

new: {}

original: {1: 'one', 2: 'two'}

8) setdefault()

This method returns the value of the item with the specified key. If the key
does not exist, it inserts the key with the specified value.

Syntax: var_name=dict_name.setdefault(key, default_value)

Eg: D1={1:10,2:20,3:30}

X= D1.setdefault(1,”hello”)

print(X) O/P: 10

X= D1.setdefault(4,”hello”)

print(X) O/P: hello

print(D1) O/P: {1:10,2:20,3:30,4:”hello”}

D1.setdefault(5)

print(D1) O/P: {1:10,2:20,3:30,4:”hello”,5:None}

9) min()

This function returns the lowest key in the dictionary.

D1={1:10,2:20,3:30}

min(D1) O/P: 1

• min(D1.values()) O/P: 10

Returns the lowest value in the dictionary.

• min(D1.items()) O/P: (1:10)

Returns the lowest key with its value from the dictionary.

10) max()

This function returns the highest key in the dictionary.

D1={1:10,2:20,3:30}

max(D1) O/P: 3

• max(D1.values()) O/P: 30

Returns the highest value in the dictionary.

• min(D1.items()) O/P: (3:30)

Returns the highest key with its value from the dictionary.

11) sorted()

This method sorts the element of a dictionary by its key or value.

Syntax: sorted(dict_name)

Eg: d3={2:30,1:20,3:10} O/P: [1, 2, 3]

sorted(d3.values()) O/P: [10, 20, 30]

sorted(d3.items()) O/P: [(1, 20), (2, 30), (3, 10)]

To sort in descending order

sorted(d3.items(),reverse=True) O/P:[(3, 10), (2, 30), (1, 20)]

12) get()

get() method returns a value for the given key. If key not available, then
returns default value None.

Syntax: dict_name.get(key,default=None)

Key- this is the key to be searched.

Default – value to be returned in case the key doesn’t exist. Or else returns
None.

Eg: d3={2:30,1:20,3:10}

d3.get(1) O/P: 20

print(d3.get(4)) O/P: None

d3.get(4,"No key exist") O/P: 'No key exist'

d3.get(1,"Never") O/P: 20

Removing an item from a dictionary

To remove an item from dictionary use del or pop() method

1) del statement

Syntax: del dict_name[key]

Eg : D1={1:10,2:20,3:30}

del D1[2]

del statement is used to delete a dictionary completely using a statement

del d1

If the key mentioned in del isn’t in the dictionary, it results in error.

2) pop()

This method will delete an item from the dictionary and also return the
deleted value.

D1.pop(3) O/P: 30

If the key mentioned in pop() isn’t in the dictionary, it results in error.

3) popitem()

This method removes the last item from dictionary and returns the deleted
item.

D1={1:10,2:20,3:30}

D1.popitem() O/P: (3:30)

4) clear()

It removes all items from the dictionary

Syntax: d.clear()

D1={1:10,2:20,3:30}

D1.clear()

print(D1) O/P: {}