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I Made A Python Cheat Sheet for Data

Structures and Algorithms (Useful for
Leetcode)
Abdul Malik · Follow
8 min read · Jun 12, 2022

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Python Cheat Sheet

Leave a � on Github (contributions welcome)

Click here for similar Java Resource since many comments asked (not made by me)

Get a PDF of this sheet at the end of the article.

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Cheat Sheets.

Usage Guide
• Keep this guide open beside you while solving problems and take a look as

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and when necessary.

• Read through this once just to get an idea of the possibilities with Python.

• (optional) Read this guide every few days or once a week for around 1 month.
You’ll automatically have most syntax in your mind (spaced repetition).

Basics
• Data Types

• Operators and it’s precendence

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Data Structures
Important data structures for Leetcode

Lists

Lists are used to store multiple items in a single variable

• Operations Time Complexities

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nums = [1,2,3]

nums.index(1) # returns index

nums.append(1) # appends 1
nums.insert(0,10) # inserts 10 at 0th index
nums.remove(3) # removes all instances of 3
nums.copy(1) # returns copy of the list
nums.count(1) # returns no.of times '1' is present in the list
nums.extend(someOtherList) # ...
nums.pop() # pops last element [which element to pop can also be
given as optional argument]
nums.reverse() # reverses original list (nums in this case)
nums.sort() # sorts list [does NOT return sorted list]
#Python's default sort uses Tim Sort, which is a combination of
both merge sort and insertion sort.

It's pretty simple really:

a[start:stop] # items start through stop-1

a[start:] # items start through the rest of the array
a[:stop] # items from the beginning through stop-1

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a[:] # a copy of the whole array

There is also the step value, which can be used with any of the
above:

a[start:stop:step] # start through not past stop, by step

The key point to remember is that the :stop value represents the
first value that is not in the selected slice. So, the difference
between stop and start is the number of elements selected (if step
is 1, the default).

The other feature is that start or stop may be a negative number,

which means it counts from the end of the array instead of the
beginning. So:

a[-1] # last item in the array

a[-2:] # last two items in the array
a[:-2] # everything except the last two items
Similarly, step may be a negative number:

a[::-1] # all items in the array, reversed

a[1::-1] # the first two items, reversed
a[:-3:-1] # the last two items, reversed
a[-3::-1] # everything except the last two items, reversed
Python is kind to the programmer if there are fewer items than you
ask for. For example, if you ask for a[:-2] and a only contains
one element, you get an empty list instead of an error. Sometimes
you would prefer the error, so you have to be aware that this may
happen.

Relation to slice() object

The slicing operator [] is actually being used in the above code
with a slice() object using the : notation (which is only valid
within []), i.e.:

a[start:stop:step]
is equivalent to:

a[slice(start, stop, step)]

Slice objects also behave slightly differently depending on the
number of arguments, similarly to range(), i.e. both slice(stop)
and slice(start, stop[, step]) are supported. To skip specifying a
given argument, one might use None, so that e.g. a[start:] is
equivalent to a[slice(start, None)] or a[::-1] is equivalent to
a[slice(None, None, -1)].

While the :-based notation is very helpful for simple slicing, the
explicit use of slice() objects simplifies the programmatic
generation of slicing.

Dictionary

Dictionaries are used to store data values in key:value pairs. Info about
collections.Counter() available below.

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• Operations Time Complexities

dict = {'a':1,'b':2,'c':3}

dict.keys() # returns list of keys of dictionary

dict.values() # returns list of values of dictionary
dict.get('a') # returns value for any corresponding key
dict.items() # returns [('a',1),('b',2),('c',3)]
dict.copy() # returns copy of the dictionary
# NOTE : items() Returns view object that will be updated with any
future changes to dict
dict.pop(KEY) # pops key-value pair with that key
dict.popitem() # removes most recent pair added
dict.setDefault(KEY,DEFAULT_VALUE) # returns value of key, if key
exists, else default value returned
# If the key exist, this parameter(DEFAULT_VALUE) has no effect.
# If the key does not exist, DEFAULT_VALUE becomes the key's
value. 2nd argument's default is None.
dict.update({KEY:VALUE}) # inserts pair in dictionary if not
present, if present, corresponding value is overridden(not key)
# defaultdict ensures that if any element is accessed that is not
present in the dictionary
# it will be created and error will not be thrown (which happens

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in normal dictionary)
# Also, the new element created will be of argument type, for
example in the below line
# an element of type 'list' will be made for a Key that does not
exist
myDictionary = defaultdict(list)

Counter

Python Counter is a container that will hold the count of each of the elements
present in the container. The counter is a sub-class available inside the
dictionary class. Specifically used for element frequencies

Pretty similar to dictionary, infact I use defaultdict(int) most of the time

from collections import Counter #(capital 'C')

# can also be used as 'collections.Counter()' in code

list1 = ['x','y','z','x','x','x','y', 'z']

# Initialization
Counter(list1) # => Counter({'x': 4, 'y': 2, 'z': 2})
Counter("Welcome to Guru99 Tutorials!") # => Counter({'o': 3, ' ':
3, 'u': 3, 'e': 2.....})

# Updating
counterObject = collections.Counter(list1)
counterObject.keys() = [ 'x' , 'y' , 'z' ]
most_common_element = counterObject.most_common(1) # [('x', 4)]
counterObject.update("some string") # => Counter({'o': 3, 'u': 3,
'e': 2, 's': 2})
counterObject['s'] += 1 # Increase/Decrease frequency

# Accessing
frequency_of_s = counterObject['s']

# Deleting
del couterObject['s']

Deque

A double-ended queue, or deque, has the feature of adding and removing

elements from either end.

• Operations Time Complexities

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from collections import deque

queue = deque(['name','age','DOB'])

queue.append("append_from_right") # Append from right

queue.pop() # Pop from right

queue.appendleft("fromLeft") # Append from left

queue.popleft() # Pop from left

queue.index(element,begin_index,end_index) # Returns first index

of element b/w the 2 indices.
queue.insert(index,element)
queue.remove() # removes first occurrance
queue.count() # obvious

queue.reverse() # reverses order of queue elements

Heapq

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As we know the Heap Data Structure is used to implement the Priority Queue
ADT. In python we can directly access a Priority Queue implemented using a
Heap by using the Heapq library/module.

• Operations Time Complexities

import heapq # (minHeap by Default)

nums = [5, 7, 9, 1, 3]

heapq.heapify(nums) # converts list into heap. Can be converted

back to list by list(nums).
heapq.heappush(nums,element) # Push an element into the heap
heapq.heappop(nums) # Pop an element from the heap
#heappush(heap, ele) :- This function is used to insert the
element mentioned in its arguments into heap. The order is
adjusted, so as heap structure is maintained.
#heappop(heap) :- This function is used to remove and return the
smallest element from heap. The order is adjusted, so as heap
structure is maintained.

# Other Methods Available in the Library

# Used to return the k largest elements from the iterable
specified
# The key is a function with that accepts single element from
iterable,

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# and the returned value from that function is then used to rank
that element in the heap
heapq.nlargest(k, iterable, key = fun)
heapq.nsmallest(k, iterable, key = fun)

Sets

A set is a collection which is unordered, immutable, unindexed, No Duplicates.

• Operations Time Complexities

set = {1,2,3}

set.add(item)
set.remove(item)
set.discard(item) | set.remove(item) # removes item | remove will
throw error if item is not there, discard will not

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set.pop() # removes random item (since unordered)

set.isdisjoint(anotherSet) # returns true if no common elements

set.issubset(anotherSet) # returns true if all elements from
anotherSet is present in original set
set.issuperset(anotherSet) # returns true if all elements from
original set is present in anotherSet

set.difference(anotherSet) # returns set containing items ONLY in

first set
set.difference_update(anotherSet) # removes common elements from
first set [no new set is created or returned]
set.intersection(anotherSet) # returns new set with common
elements
set.intersection_update(anotherSet) # modifies first set keeping
only common elements
set.symmetric_difference(anotherSet) # returns set containing all
non-common elements of both sets
set.symmetric_difference_update(anotherSet) # same as
symmetric_difference but changes are made on original set

set.union(anotherSet) # ...
set.update(anotherSet) # adds anotherSet without duplicate

Tuples

A tuple is a collection which is ordered, unchangeable and can contain duplicate

values

• Operations Time Complexities

• Similar to list

tuple = (1,2,3,1)

tuple.count(1) # returns occurence of an item

tuple.index(1) # returns index of 1 in array

Strings

# ** split Function **
#The split() method breaks up a string at the specified separator
and returns a list of strings.
text = 'Python is a fun programming language'

# split the text from space

print(text.split(' '))

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#convert string to list

s="abcd"
s=list(s)

# Output: ['Python', 'is', 'a', 'fun', 'programming', 'language']

# ** count Function **
#The count() method returns the number of occurrences of a
substring in the given string.
#Example
message = 'python is popular programming language'
# number of occurrence of 'p'
print('Number of occurrence of p:', message.count('p')) # Output:
Number of occurrence of p: 4

#The isnumeric() method returns True if all characters in a string

are numeric characters. If not, it returns False.
s = '1242323'
print(s.isnumeric()) #Output: True

#The find() method returns the index of first occurrence of the

substring (if found). If not found, it returns -1.
# check the index of 'fun'
print(message.find('fun')) # Output: 12

#The isalnum() method returns True if all characters in the string

are alphanumeric (either alphabets or numbers). If not, it returns
False.

name = "M3onica Gell22er "

print(name.isalnum()) # Output : False

#The isalpha() method returns True if all characters in the string

are alphabets.
Leetcode If not, it Algorithms
Data Structures returns False
Python
name = "Monica"
print(name.isalpha()) #output true

#other imp functions

string.strip([chars]) #The strip() method returns a copy of the
string by removing both the leading and the trailing characters
(based on the string argument passed).
string.upper() #he upper() method converts all lowercase
characters in a string into uppercase characters and returns it.
string.lower() #The lower() method converts all uppercase
characters in a string into lowercase characters and returns it.
string.islower()
string.isdigit()
string.isupper()
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Python integer division behaves differently with -ve numbers ex: -3//2 will give -2
Written by Abdul Malik
answer instead of -1 so always use int(-3/2) for integer division in problems
305 Followers

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Love converting thoughts into code.

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The Modulo Operation (%) With Negative Numbers in Python

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