Working with dictionary in python

Python dictionary

Python dictionary is a container of key-value pairs. It is mutable and can contain mixed types. A dictionary is an unordered collection. Python dictionaries are called associative arrays or hash tables in other languages. The keys in a dictionary must be immutable objects like strings or numbers. They must also be unique within a dictionary.

Python dictionary creation

First, we show how to create Python dictionaries.

#!/usr/bin/python # create_dict.py weekend = < "Sun": "Sunday", "Mon": "Monday" >vals = dict(one=1, two=2) capitals = <> capitals["svk"] = "Bratislava" capitals["deu"] = "Berlin" capitals["dnk"] = "Copenhagen" d = < i: object() for i in range(4) >print(weekend) print(vals) print(capitals) print(d)

In the example, we create four dictionaries in four different ways. Later we print the contents of these dictionaries to the console.

We create a weekend dictionary using dictionary literal notation. The key-value pairs are enclosed by curly brackets. The pairs are separated by commas. The first value of a pair is a key, which is followed by a colon character and a value. The «Sun» string is a key and the «Sunday» string is a value.

Dictionaries can be created using the dict function.

capitals = <> capitals["svk"] = "Bratislava" capitals["deu"] = "Berlin" capitals["dnk"] = "Copenhagen"

In the third way an empty capitals dictionary is created. Three pairs are added to the dictionary. The keys are inside the square brackets, the values are located on the right side of the assignment.

A dictionary is created using a dictionary comprehension. The comprehension has two parts. The first part is the i: object expression, which is executed for each cycle of a loop. The second part is the for i in range(4) loop. The dictionary comprehension creates a dictionary having four pairs, where the keys are numbers 0, 1, 2, and 3 and the values are simple objects.

Python dictionary comprehension

A dictionary comprehension is a syntactic construct which creates a dictionary based on existing dictionary.

A dictionary comprehension is placed between two curly brackets; it has three parts: for loop, condition, and expression.

In the for loop, we go through the dictionary. The optional if condition specifies a condition which must be met. In the end, the expression is evaluated. The expression produces elements of the output dictionary from members of the input sequence that satisfy the condition.

#!/usr/bin/python # comprehension.py capitals = < "Bratislava": 424207, "Vilnius": 556723, "Lisbon": 564657, "Riga": 713016, "Jerusalem": 780200, "Warsaw": 1711324, "Budapest": 1729040, "Prague": 1241664, "Helsinki": 596661, "Yokyo": 13189000, "Madrid": 3233527 >capitals2 = < key:val for key, val in capitals.items() if val < 1000000 >print(capitals2)

In the example, we create a new dictionary from an existing dictionary.

We have a dictionary of capitals. The capital in a key and the population is the value.

A new dictionary is created using a dictionary comprehension. It contains capitals that have a population smaller than one million.

These capitals have a population smaller than one million.

Basic operations with Python dictionaries

The following examples shows some basic operations with Python dictionaries.

#!/usr/bin/python # basics.py basket = < 'oranges': 12, 'pears': 5, 'apples': 4 >basket['bananas'] = 5 print(basket) print("There are various items in the basket".format(len(basket))) print(basket['apples']) basket['apples'] = 8 print(basket['apples']) print(basket.get('oranges', 'undefined')) print(basket.get('cherries', 'undefined'))

We have a basket with different fruits. We perform some operations on the basket dictionary.

The basket dictionary is created. It has initially three key-value pairs.

A new pair is created. The ‘bananas’ string is a key, the 5 integer is the value.

print("There are various items in the basket".format(len(basket)))

The len function gives the number of pairs in the dictionary.

The value of the ‘apples’ key is printed to the terminal.

The value of the ‘apples’ key is modified. It is set to number 8.

print(basket.get('oranges', 'undefined'))

The get method retrieves the value of a specified key. If there is no such a key, the second parameter of the method is returned.

print(basket.get('cherries', 'undefined'))

This line returns ‘undefined’. There are no cherries in the basket.

$ ./basics.py There are 4 various items in the basket 4 8 12 undefined

Python dictionary — fromkeys and setdefault

The next example presents two dictionary methods: fromkeys and setdefault .

#!/usr/bin/python # fruits.py basket = ('oranges', 'pears', 'apples', 'bananas') fruits = <>.fromkeys(basket, 0) print(fruits) fruits['oranges'] = 12 fruits['pears'] = 8 fruits['apples'] = 4 print(fruits.setdefault('oranges', 11)) print(fruits.setdefault('kiwis', 11)) print(fruits)

The fromkeys method creates a new dictionary from a list. The setdefault method returns a value if a key is present. Otherwise, it inserts a key with a specified default value and returns the value.

basket = ('oranges', 'pears', 'apples', 'bananas')

We have a list of strings. From this list a new dictionary will be constructed.

The fromkeys method creates a new dictionary, where the list items will be the keys. Each key will be initiated to 0. Note that the fromkeys method is a class method and needs the class name, which is <> in our case, to be called.

fruits['oranges'] = 12 fruits['pears'] = 8 fruits['apples'] = 4

Here we add some values to the fruits dictionary.

print(fruits.setdefault('oranges', 11)) print(fruits.setdefault('kiwis', 11))

The first line prints 12 to the terminal. The ‘oranges’ key exists in the dictionary. In such a case, the method returns the its value. In the second case, the key does not exist yet. A new pair ‘kiwis’: 11 is inserted to the dictionary. And value 11 is printed to the console.

We receive this output when we launch the fruits.py script.

Python dictionary update method

The next code example shows how to add two Python dictionaries using the update method.

#!/usr/bin/python # domains.py domains = < "de": "Germany", "sk": "Slovakia", "hu": "Hungary">domains2 = < "us": "United States", "no": "Norway" >domains.update(domains2) print(domains)

Two dictionaries are joined with the update method.

The domains2 dictionary is added to the domains dictionary with the update method.

The result shows all values.

Python removing items from dictionary

Now we show how to remove a pair from a dictionary.

#!/usr/bin/python # removing.py items = < "coins": 7, "pens": 3, "cups": 2, "bags": 1, "bottles": 4, "books": 5 >print(items) item = items.pop("coins") print("Item having value was removed".format(item)) print(items) del items["bottles"] print(items) items.clear() print(items)

The items dictionary has six key-value pairs. We will delete pairs from this dictionary.

item = items.pop("coins") print("Item having value was removed".format(item))

The pop method removes a pair with a specified key; it returns the value of the removed key.

The del keyword deletes the «bottles»: 4 pair from the items dictionary.

The clear method clears all items from the dictionary.

$ ./removing.py Item having value 7 was removed  <>

Python dictionary keys and values

A Python dictionary consists of key-value pairs. The keys method returns a list of keys from a dictionary. The values method creates a list of values. And the items method returns a list of key-value tuples.

#!/usr/bin/python # keys_values.py domains = < "de": "Germany", "sk": "Slovakia", "hu": "Hungary", "us": "United States", "no": "Norway" >print(domains.keys()) print(domains.values()) print(domains.items()) print("de" in domains) print("cz" in domains)

We demonstrate the above mentioned methods. We also check if a key is present with the in keyword.

We print the list of keys of a domains dictionary with the keys method.

We print the list of values of a domains dictionary with the values method.

And finally, we print the list of key-value tuples of a domains dictionary using the items method.

print("de" in domains) print("cz" in domains)

With the in keyword, we check if the «de» , «cz» keys are present in the domains dictionary. The return value is either True or False .

$ ./keys_values.py ['sk', 'de', 'no', 'us', 'hu'] ['Slovakia', 'Germany', 'Norway', 'United States', 'Hungary'] [('sk', 'Slovakia'), ('de', 'Germany'), ('no', 'Norway'), ('us', 'United States'), ('hu', 'Hungary')] True False

Python dictionary looping

Looping through the dictionary is a common programming job. This can be done with the for keyword.

#!/usr/bin/python # looping.py domains = < "de": "Germany", "sk": "Slovakia", "hu": "Hungary", "us": "United States", "no": "Norway" >for key in domains: print(key) for val in domains.values(): print(val) for k, v in domains.items(): print(": ".join((k, v)))

In the example, we traverse the domains dictionary to print the keys, values and both keys and values of the dictionary.

for key in domains: print(key)

This loop prints all the keys of the dictionary.

for val in domains.values(): print(val)

The second loop prints all values of the dictionary.

for k, v in domains.items(): print(": ".join((k, v)))

In the third loop, all keys and values are printed.

$ ./looping.py sk de no us hu Slovakia Germany Norway United States Hungary sk: Slovakia de: Germany no: Norway us: United States hu: Hungary

Python dictionary membership testing

With the in and not in operators we can check if an key is present in a dictionary.

#!/usr/bin/python # membership.py domains = < "de": "Germany", "sk": "Slovakia", "hu": "Hungary", "us": "United States", "no": "Norway" >key = "sk" if key in domains: print(" is in the dictionary".format(domainsWorking with dictionary in python))

In the example we check if a country is in the dictionary with the in operator.

Python dictionary sorting

Python dictionaries are orderless. This also implies that they cannot be sorted like a Python list. Programmers can create sorted representations of Python dictionaries. In this section, we show several ways to create a sorted output.

Programmers might want to sort the data in a normal or reverse order. They could sort the data by keys or by values.

#!/usr/bin/python # simple_sort.py items = < "coins": 7, "pens": 3, "cups": 2, "bags": 1, "bottles": 4, "books": 5 >kitems = list(items.keys()) kitems.sort() for k in kitems: print(": ".join((k, str(items[k]))))

The first example provides the simplest solution to have the data sorted by the keys.

kitems = items.keys() kitems.sort()

A list of keys is obtained from the dictionary. The list is sorted with the sort method.

for k in kitems: print(": ".join((k, str(items[k]))))

In the loop we print the sorted keys together with their values from the dictionary.

$ ./simple_sort.py bags: 1 books: 5 bottles: 4 coins: 7 cups: 2 pens: 3

The items dictionary is sorted by its keys.

More efficient sorting can be done with the built-in sorted function.

#!/usr/bin/python # sorting.py items = < "coins": 7, "pens": 3, "cups": 2, "bags": 1, "bottles": 4, "books": 5 >for key in sorted(items.keys()): print("%: ".format(key, itemsWorking with dictionary in python)) print("###############") for key in sorted(items.keys(), reverse=True): print(": ".format(key, itemsWorking with dictionary in python))

In the example we print sorted data by their keys in ascending and descending order using the sorted function.

for key in sorted(items.keys()): print("%: ".format(key, itemsWorking with dictionary in python))

In this for loop, we print the pairs sorted in ascending order. The iteritems function returns an iterator over the dictionary’s (key, value) pairs.

for key in sorted(items.keys(), reverse=True): print(": ".format(key, itemsWorking with dictionary in python))

In the second for loop, the data is sorted in descending order. The order type is controlled by the reverse parameter.

$ ./sorting.py bags: 1 books: 5 bottles: 4 coins: 7 cups: 2 pens: 3 ############### pens: 3 cups: 2 coins: 7 bottles: 4 books: 5 bags: 1

In the next example, we are going to sort the items by their values.

#!/usr/bin/python # sorting2.py items = < "coins": 7, "pens": 3, "cups": 2, "bags": 1, "bottles": 4, "books": 5 >for key, value in sorted(items.items(), key=lambda pair: pair[1]): print(": ".format(key, value)) print("###############") for key, value in sorted(items.items(), key=lambda pair: pair[1], reverse=True): print(": ".format(key, value))

The example prints the data in ascending and descending order by their values.

for key, value in sorted(items.iteritems(), key=lambda (k,v): (v,k)):

Dictionary pairs are sorted by their values and printed to the console. The key parameter takes a function, which indicates, how the data is going to be sorted.

$ ./sorting2.py bags: 1 cups: 2 pens: 3 bottles: 4 books: 5 coins: 7 ############### coins: 7 books: 5 bottles: 4 pens: 3 cups: 2 bags: 1

From the output we can see that this time the pairs were sorted by their values.

In this article we have written about Python dictionaries.

Author

My name is Jan Bodnar and I am a passionate programmer with many years of programming experience. I have been writing programming articles since 2007. So far, I have written over 1400 articles and 8 e-books. I have over eight years of experience in teaching programming.

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