Day 5: Data Structures II – Dictionaries & Sets

Today, you'll learn how to work with dictionaries and sets—two essential data structures in Python
that help you manage data in versatile ways.

Step 1: Exploring Dictionaries

What is a Dictionary?

• Definition:
A dictionary is an unordered collection of key-value pairs. Each key is unique and is used to
store and retrieve its associated value. Dictionaries are mutable, meaning you can change
them after creation.

• Creating a Dictionary:

# Example dictionary representing a person

person = {

"name": "Alice",

"age": 30,

"city": "New York"

print("Person dictionary:", person)

Key Operations on Dictionaries

1. Accessing Values:
Use the key inside square brackets or the .get() method.

# Using square brackets

print("Name:", person["name"])

# Using .get() method (returns None if the key is not found)

print("Age:", person.get("age"))

2. Modifying and Adding Items:

# Modify existing value

person["age"] = 31

print("Updated age:", person["age"])

# Add a new key-value pair

print("After adding job:", person)

3. Removing Items:
Remove a key-value pair using the del statement or .pop() method.

# Using del to remove a key

del person["city"]

print("After removing 'city':", person)

# Using pop to remove a key and return its value

job = person.pop("job")

print("Popped job:", job)

print("Dictionary after pop:", person)

4. Looping Through a Dictionary:

# Loop over keys

for key in person:

print(key, "->", person[key])

# Loop over keys and values

for key, value in person.items():

print(f"{key}: {value}")

Step 2: Exploring Sets

What is a Set?

• Definition:
A set is an unordered collection of unique elements. Sets are mutable (you can add or
remove items), but the elements contained in a set must be immutable (e.g., numbers,
strings, tuples).

• Creating a Set:

# Example set of fruits

fruits = {"apple", "banana", "cherry"}

print("Fruits set:", fruits)

Key Operations on Sets

fruits.add("orange")

print("After adding orange:", fruits)

2. Removing Elements:

# Using remove (raises an error if the item is not found)

fruits.remove("banana")

print("After removing banana:", fruits)

# Using discard (does nothing if the item is not found)

fruits.discard("kiwi")

print("After attempting to discard kiwi:", fruits)

3. Set Operations:
Sets support mathematical operations such as union, intersection, difference, and
symmetric difference.

set_a = {1, 2, 3, 4}

set_b = {3, 4, 5, 6}

union = set_a | set_b # or set_a.union(set_b)

intersection = set_a & set_b # or set_a.intersection(set_b)

difference = set_a - set_b # or set_a.difference(set_b)

sym_difference = set_a ^ set_b # or set_a.symmetric_difference(set_b)

print("Union:", union)

print("Intersection:", intersection)

print("Difference (set_a - set_b):", difference)

print("Symmetric Difference:", sym_difference)

Step 3: Hands-On Exercises

Exercise 1: Dictionary Practice

Task:
Create a dictionary that maps several countries to their capitals, and then manipulate it.

Steps:
 1. Create a dictionary called capitals with at least three country-capital pairs.

2. Print the capital of a specific country (e.g., "France").

3. Add a new country and its capital.

4. Remove a country from the dictionary.

5. Iterate over the dictionary and print each country and its capital.

Sample Code:

# Exercise: Country Capitals Dictionary

capitals = {

"France": "Paris",

"Germany": "Berlin",

"Italy": "Rome"

print("Capital of France:", capitals["France"])

# Add a new country-capital pair

capitals["Spain"] = "Madrid"

print("After adding Spain:", capitals)

# Remove a country (e.g., Germany)

capitals.pop("Germany")

print("After removing Germany:", capitals)

# Loop through the dictionary

for country, capital in capitals.items():

print(f"{country}: {capital}")

Exercise 2: Set Practice

Task:
Create a set of unique numbers, and then perform some set operations.

Steps:

1. Create a set named numbers with some duplicate values to see that duplicates are
automatically removed.
 2. Add a new number to the set.

3. Remove a number from the set.

4. Create another set and perform union and intersection operations.

Sample Code:

# Exercise: Unique Numbers Set

numbers = {1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5}

print("Initial numbers set (duplicates removed):", numbers)

# Add a new number

numbers.add(6)

print("After adding 6:", numbers)

# Remove a number

numbers.discard(3)

print("After discarding 3:", numbers)

# Create another set for operations

more_numbers = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8}

print("More numbers set:", more_numbers)

# Perform union and intersection

union_set = numbers | more_numbers

intersection_set = numbers & more_numbers

print("Union of both sets:", union_set)

print("Intersection of both sets:", intersection_set)

Step 4: Experiment in the Python Interactive Shell

1. Open the Python Interactive Shell:

python
 2. Try Out Dictionary and Set Commands:

# Dictionary experimentation

fruit_colors = {"apple": "red", "banana": "yellow", "grape": "purple"}

print("Fruit colors:", fruit_colors)

print("Color of apple:", fruit_colors.get("apple"))

# Set experimentation

vowels = {"a", "e", "i", "o", "u"}

print("Vowels set:", vowels)

vowels.add("y")

print("After adding 'y':", vowels)

vowels.discard("o")

print("After discarding 'o':", vowels)

3. Exit the Shell:

exit()

Step 5: Additional Learning Resources

• W3Schools – Python Dictionaries:

• W3Schools – Python Sets: