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Python Dictionary PDF

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shivam
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© © All Rights Reserved
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PYTHON DICTIONARY

http://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/python_dictionary.htm Copyright © tutorialspoint.com

Each key is separated from its value by a colon : , the items are separated by commas, and the
whole thing is enclosed in curly braces. An empty dictionary without any items is written with just
two curly braces, like this: {}.

Keys are unique within a dictionary while values may not be. The values of a dictionary can be of
any type, but the keys must be of an immutable data type such as strings, numbers, or tuples.

Accessing Values in Dictionary:


To access dictionary elements, you can use the familiar square brackets along with the key to
obtain its value. Following is a simple example −

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'};

print "dict['Name']: ", dict['Name']


print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age']

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

dict['Name']: Zara
dict['Age']: 7

If we attempt to access a data item with a key, which is not part of the dictionary, we get an error
as follows −

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'};

print "dict['Alice']: ", dict['Alice']

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

dict['Zara']:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 4, in <module>
print "dict['Alice']: ", dict['Alice'];
KeyError: 'Alice'

Updating Dictionary
You can update a dictionary by adding a new entry or a key-value pair, modifying an existing
entry, or deleting an existing entry as shown below in the simple example −

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'};

dict['Age'] = 8; # update existing entry


dict['School'] = "DPS School"; # Add new entry

print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age']


print "dict['School']: ", dict['School']

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −


dict['Age']: 8
dict['School']: DPS School

Delete Dictionary Elements


You can either remove individual dictionary elements or clear the entire contents of a dictionary.
You can also delete entire dictionary in a single operation.

To explicitly remove an entire dictionary, just use the del statement. Following is a simple example
−

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'};

del dict['Name']; # remove entry with key 'Name'


dict.clear(); # remove all entries in dict
del dict ; # delete entire dictionary

print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age']


print "dict['School']: ", dict['School']

This produces the following result. Note that an exception is raised because after del dict
dictionary does not exist any more −

dict['Age']:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 8, in <module>
print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age'];
TypeError: 'type' object is unsubscriptable

Note: del method is discussed in subsequent section.

Properties of Dictionary Keys


Dictionary values have no restrictions. They can be any arbitrary Python object, either standard
objects or user-defined objects. However, same is not true for the keys.

There are two important points to remember about dictionary keys −

a More than one entry per key not allowed. Which means no duplicate key is allowed. When
duplicate keys encountered during assignment, the last assignment wins. For example −

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Name': 'Manni'};

print "dict['Name']: ", dict['Name']

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

dict['Name']: Manni

b Keys must be immutable. Which means you can use strings, numbers or tuples as dictionary keys
but something like ['key'] is not allowed. Following is a simple example:

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {['Name']: 'Zara', 'Age': 7};

print "dict['Name']: ", dict['Name']

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −


Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 3, in <module>
dict = {['Name']: 'Zara', 'Age': 7};
TypeError: list objects are unhashable

Built-in Dictionary Functions & Methods −


Python includes the following dictionary functions −

SN Function with Description

1
cmpdict1, dict2

Compares elements of both dict.

2
lendict

Gives the total length of the dictionary. This would be equal to the number of items in the
dictionary.

3
strdict

Produces a printable string representation of a dictionary

4
typevariable

Returns the type of the passed variable. If passed variable is dictionary, then it would
return a dictionary type.

Python includes following dictionary methods −

SN Methods with Description

1
dict.clear

Removes all elements of dictionary dict

2
dict.copy

Returns a shallow copy of dictionary dict

3
dict.fromkeys

Create a new dictionary with keys from seq and values set to value.

4
dict.getkey, default = None

For key key, returns value or default if key not in dictionary

5
5
dict.has_keykey

Returns true if key in dictionary dict, false otherwise

6
dict.items

Returns a list of dict's key, value tuple pairs

7
dict.keys

Returns list of dictionary dict's keys

8
dict.setdefaultkey, default = None

Similar to get, but will set dict[key]=default if key is not already in dict

9
dict.updatedict2

Adds dictionary dict2's key-values pairs to dict

10
dict.values

Returns list of dictionary dict's values

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