Starting out with Python

Fifth Edition

Chapter 9
Dictionaries

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Topics
• Dictionaries

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Dictionaries
• Dictionary: object that stores a collection of data
– Each element consists of a key and a value
 Often referred to as mapping of key to value
 Key must be an immutable object
 Keys can be strings, integers, floating pt numbers, tuples
but no lists
– To retrieve a specific value, use the key associated
with it
– Format for creating a dictionary
dictionary =
{key1:val1, key2:val2}
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Retrieving a Value from a Dictionary
• Elements in dictionary are unsorted
• General format for retrieving value from dictionary:
dictionary[key]
– If key in the dictionary, associated value is returned,
otherwise, KeyError exception is raised
• Test whether a key is in a dictionary using the in and
not in operators
– Helps prevent KeyError exceptions

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Adding Elements to an Existing
Dictionary
• Dictionaries are mutable objects
• To add a new key-value pair:
dictionary[key] = value
– If key exists in the dictionary, the value associated with
it will be changed

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Deleting Elements From an Existing
Dictionary
• To delete a key-value pair:
del dictionary[key]
– If key is not in the dictionary, KeyError exception is
raised

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Getting the Number of Elements and
Mixing Data Types
• len function: used to obtain number of elements in a
dictionary
• Keys must be immutable objects, but associated
values can be any type of object
– One dictionary can include keys of several different
immutable types
• Values stored in a single dictionary can be of different
types

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Creating an Empty Dictionary and Using
for Loop to Iterate Over a Dictionary
• To create an empty dictionary:
– Use {}
– Use built-in function dict()
– Elements can be added to the dictionary as program
executes
• Use a for loop to iterate over a dictionary
– General format: for key in dictionary:

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Some Dictionary Methods (1 of 5)
• clear method: deletes all the elements in a
dictionary, leaving it empty
– Format: dictionary.clear()
• get method: gets a value associated with specified
key from the dictionary
– Format: dictionary.get(key, default)
 default is returned if key is not found
– Alternative to [] operator
 Cannot raise KeyError exception

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Some Dictionary Methods (2 of 5)
• items method: returns all the dictionaries keys and
associated values
– Format: dictionary.items()
– Returned as a dictionary view
 Each element in dictionary view is a tuple which contains
a key and its associated value
 Use a for loop to iterate over the tuples in the sequence
– Can use a variable which receives a tuple, or can use two
variables which receive key and value

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Some Dictionary Methods (3 of 5)
• keys method: returns all the dictionaries keys as a
sequence
– Format: dictionary.keys()
• pop method: returns value associated with specified
key and removes that key-value pair from the
dictionary
– Format: dictionary.pop(key, default)
 default is returned if key is not found

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Some Dictionary Methods (4 of 5)
• popitem method: Returns, as a tuple, the key-value
pair that was last added to the dictionary. The method
also removes the key-value pair from the dictionary.
– Format: dictionary.popitem()
– Key-value pair returned as a tuple
• values method: returns all the dictionaries values as
a sequence
– Format: dictionary.values()
– Use a for loop to iterate over the values

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Some Dictionary Methods (5 of 5)
Table 9-1 Some of the dictionary methods

Method Description
Clear Clears the contents of a dictionary.
get Gets the value associated with a specified key. If the key is not found, the method
does not raise an exception. Instead, it returns a default value.
items Returns all the keys in a dictionary and their associated values as a sequence of
tuples.
keys Returns all the keys in a dictionary as a sequence of tuples.
pop Returns the value associated with a specified key and removes that key-value pair
from the dictionary. If the key is not found, the method returns a default value.
popitem Returns, as a tuple, the key-value pair that was last added to the dictionary. The
method also removes the key-value pair from the dictionary.
values Returns all the values in the dictionary as a sequence of tuples.

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Summary (1 of 2)
• This chapter covered:
– Dictionaries, including:
 Creating dictionaries
 Inserting, retrieving, adding, and deleting key-value pairs
 for loops and in and not in operators
 Dictionary methods

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