PYTHON - DICTIONARY
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/python_dictionary.htm Copyright © tutorialspoint.com
Advertisements
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 −
Live Demo
#!/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 −
Live Demo
#!/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['Alice']:
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 −
Live Demo
#!/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 −
Live Demo
#!/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 −
Live Demo
#!/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 −
Live Demo
#!/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: unhashable type: 'list'
Built-in Dictionary Functions & Methods
Python includes the following dictionary functions −
Sr.No. 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 −
Sr.No. 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, def ault = N one
For key key, returns value or default if key not in dictionary
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, def ault = N one
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
