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Python Learn 05 Dictionaries

This document discusses Python dictionaries as a powerful data collection that allows for fast database-like operations using key-value pairs. It contrasts dictionaries with lists, highlighting their differences in lookup methods and order of entries, especially noting changes in Python 3.7. The document also touches on the abstract nature of Python collections and provides examples of how to use lists and dictionaries.

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abhinav.mishra
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19 views9 pages

Python Learn 05 Dictionaries

This document discusses Python dictionaries as a powerful data collection that allows for fast database-like operations using key-value pairs. It contrasts dictionaries with lists, highlighting their differences in lookup methods and order of entries, especially noting changes in Python 3.7. The document also touches on the abstract nature of Python collections and provides examples of how to use lists and dictionaries.

Uploaded by

abhinav.mishra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Python Dictionaries

Chapter 5
What is a Collection?
• A collection is nice because we can put more than one value in it
and carry them all around in one convenient package

• We have a bunch of values in a single “variable”

• We do this by having more than one place “in” the variable

• We have ways of finding the different places in the variable


A Story of Two Collections..
• List

A linear collection of values


Lookup by position 0 .. length-1

• Dictionary

A linear collection of key-value pairs


Lookup by "tag" or "key"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_card#/media/File:LA2-katalogkort.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shelves-of-file-folders.jpg
Dictionaries
• Dictionaries are Python’s most powerful data collection

• Dictionaries allow us to do fast database-like operations in Python

• Similar concepts in different programming languages

- Associative Arrays - Perl / PHP

- Properties or Map or HashMap - Java

- Property Bag - C# / .Net


Dictionaries over time in Python
• Prior to Python 3.7 dictionaries did not keep entries in the
order of insertion

• Python 3.7 (2018) and later dictionaries keep entries in


the order they were inserted

• "insertion order" is not "always sorted order"


Below the Abstraction
• Python lists, dictionaries, and tuples are "abstract objects" designed
to be easy to use

• For now we will just understand them and use them and thank the
creators of Python for making them easy for us

• Using Python collections is easy. Creating the code to support them


is tricky and uses Computer Science concepts like dynamic memory,
arrays, linked lists, hash maps and trees.

• But that implementation detail is for a later course…


Lists (Review)
>>> cards = list()
>>> cards.append(12)
• We append values to the >>> cards.append(3)
>>> cards.append(75)
end of a List and look them >>> print(cards)
up by position [12, 3, 75]
>>> print(cards[1])
3
• We insert values into a >>> cards[1] = cards[1] + 2
Dictionary using a key and >>> print(cards)
[12, 5, 75]
retrieve them using a key
Dictionaries
>>> cabinet = dict()
>>> cabinet['summer'] = 12
• We append values to the >>> cabinet['fall'] = 3
>>> cabinet['spring'] = 75
end of a List and look them >>> print(cabinet)
up by position {'summer': 12, fall': 3, spring': 75}
>>> print(cabinet['fall'])
3
• We insert values into a >>> cabinet['fall'] = cabinet['fall'] + 2
Dictionary using a key and >>> print(cabinet)
{'summer': 12, 'fall': 5, 'spring': 75}
retrieve them using a key
Comparing Lists and Dictionaries
Dictionaries are like lists except that they use keys instead of
positions to look up values

>>> lst = list() >>> ddd = dict()


>>> lst.append(21) >>> ddd['age'] = 21
>>> lst.append(183) >>> ddd['course'] = 182
>>> print(lst) >>> print(ddd)
[21, 183] {'age': 21, 'course': 182}
>>> lst[0] = 23 >>> ddd['age'] = 23
>>> print(lst) >>> print(ddd)
[23, 183] {'age': 23, 'course': 182}

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