DICTIONARIE

S
KEY-VALUE
What is
Dictionary
 It is another collection in Python but with different in
way of storing and accessing. Other collection like
list, tuple, string are having an index associated
with every element but Python Dictionary have a
“key” associated with every element. That‟s why
python dictionaries are known as KEY:VALUE pairs.
 Like with English dictionary we search any word for
meaning associated with it, similarly in Python we
search for “key” to get its associated value rather
than searching for an index.
Creating a
Dictionary
Syntax to create dictionary:
dictionary_name = {key1:value,key2:value,
….} Example
>>> emp =
{"empno":1,"name":"Shahrukh","fee":1500000}
Her Keys are : “empno”, “name” and
e “fee”
Note: Values are: 1, “Shahrukh”, 1500000
1) Dictionary elements must be between curly brackets
2) Each value must be paired with key element
3) Each key-value pair must be separated by
comma(,)
Creating a
dictionary
 Dict1 = {} # empty dictionary
 DaysInMonth={"Jan":31,"Feb":28,"Mar":31,"Apr":31
"May":31,"Jun":30,"Jul":31,"Aug":31
"Sep":30,"Oct":31,"Nov":30,"Dec":31}
Note: Keys of dictionary must of immutable type such as:
- A python string

- A number

- A tuple(containing only immutable entries)

- If we try to give mutable type as key, python will give an

error
- >>>dict2 = {[2,3]:”abc”} #Error
Accessing elements of
Dictionary
 To access Dictionary elements we need the “key”
>>>mydict={'empno':1,'name':'Shivam','dept':'sales','salary':25000}

>>> mydict['salary']
25000
Note: if you try to
access “key” which is
not in the dictionary,
python
will raise an error
>>>mydict[„comm‟
]

#Error
Traversing a
Dictionary
 Python allows to apply “for” loop to traverse every
element of dictionary based on their “key”. For
loop will get every key of dictionary and we can
access every element based on their key.

mydict={'empno':1,'name':'Shivam','dept':'sales','salary':25000}
for key in mydict:
print(key,'=',mydict[key])
Accessing keys and values
simultaneously
>>> mydict={'empno':1,'name':'Shivam','dept':'sales','salary':25000}
>>>mydict.keys()
dict_keys(['empno', 'name', 'dept', 'salary'])
>>>mydict.values()
dict_values([1, 'Shivam', 'sales', 25000])

We can convert the sequence returned by keys() and values() by using list()
as shown below:
>>> list(mydict.keys())
['empno', 'name', 'dept', 'salary']
>>> list(mydict.values())
[1, 'Shivam', 'sales',
25000]
Characteristics of a
Dictionary
 Unordered set
 A dictionary is a unordered set of key:value pair
 Not a sequence
 Unlike a string, tuple, and list, a dictionary is not a sequence
because it is unordered set of elements. The sequences are
indexed by a range of ordinal numbers. Hence they are
ordered but a dictionary is an unordered collection
 Indexed by Keys, Not Numbers
 Dictionaries are indexed by keys. Keys are immutable
type
Characteristics of a
Dictionary
 Keys must be unique
 Each key within dictionary must be unique. However two unique
keys can have same values.
 >>> data={1:100, 2:200,3:300,4:200}
 Mutable
 Like lists, dictionary are also mutable. We can change the value
of a certain “key” in place
 Data[3]=400
 >>>Data
 So, to change value of dictionary the format is :
 DictionaryName[“key” / key ]=new_value
 You can not only change but you can add new key:value pair :
VINODDci KtUoi MnAaR rVyENRMaAm,

PeG“[Tn(CeSw,)
Working with
Dictionaries
 Multiple ways of creating dictionaries
1. Initializing a Dictionary : in this method all the key:value
pairs of dictionary are written collectively separated by
commas and enclosed in curly braces
Student={“roll”:1,”name”:”Scott”,”Per”:90}

2. Adding key:value pair to an empty Dictionary : in this

method we first create empty dictionary and then
key:value pair are added to it one pair at a time For
example
Alphabets={ #Empty
} Or dictionary
Alphabets =
dict()
Working with
Dictionaries
 Multiple ways of creating dictionaries
Now we will add new pair to this empty dictionary one by one
as:
Alphabets = {}
Alphabets[“a”]=“apple
”
Alphabets[“b”]=“boy”
3. Creating dictionary from name and value pairs: using the
dict() constructor of dictionary, you can also create dictionary
initialized from specified set of keys and values. There are
multiple ways to provide keys and value to dict()
(i) Specific key:value pairs as keyword argument to dict()
Student=dict(roll=1,name=„scott‟,per=89)
Adding elements to
Dictionary
 You can add new element to dictionary as :
 dictionaryName[“key”] = value
 Nesting Dictionaries : you can add dictionary as
value inside a dictionary. This type of dictionary
known as nested dictionary. For example:
Visitor =
{„Name‟:‟Scott‟,‟Address‟:{„hno‟:‟11A/B‟,‟City‟:‟Kanpur‟,
‟PinCode‟:‟208004‟},
„Name‟:‟Peter‟,‟Address‟:{„hno‟:‟11B/
A‟,‟City‟:‟Kanpur‟,‟ PinCode‟:‟208004‟
Adding elements to
Dictionary
To print elements of nested dictionary is as :
>>> Visitor =
{'Name':'Scott','Address':{'hno':'11A/B','City':'Kanpur','PinCode'
:'208004'}}
>>> Visitor
{'Name': 'Scott', 'Address': {'hno': '11A/B', 'City': 'Kanpur',
'PinCode':
'2080
04'}}
>>> Visitor['Name']
'Scott'
>>> Visitor['Address']['City'] # to access nested
elements 'Kanpur'
Updating elements in
Dictionary
 Dictionaryname[“key”]=value
>>> data={1:100, 2:200,3:300,4:200}
>>> data[3]=1500
>>> data[3] # 1500
Deleting elements from
Dictionary
del dictionaryName[“Key”]
>>> D1 = {1:10,2:20,3:30,4:40}
>>> del D1[2]
>>> D1
1:10,2:20,4:4
0
• If you try to remove the item whose key does

not exists, the python runtime error occurs.

• Del D1[5] #Error
pop() elements from
Dictionary
dictionaryName.pop([“Key”])
>>> D1 = {1:10,2:20,3:30,4:40}
>>> D1.pop(2)
1:10,2:20,4:40
Note: if key passed to pop() doesn‟t
exists then python will raise an exception.
Pop() function allows us to customized
the error message displayed by use
of wrong key
pop() elements from
Dictionary
>>> d1
{'a': 'apple', 'b': 'ball', 'c': 'caterpillar',
'd': 'dog'}
>>>d1.pop(„a‟)
>>> d1.pop(„d„,‟Not
found‟) Not found
Checking the existence of
key
 We can check the existence of key in dictionary
using “in” and “not in”.
>>>alpha={"a":"apple","b":"boy","c":"cat","d":"
dog"}
>>> 'a' in alpha
True
>>>‟e‟ in alpha
False
>>>‟e‟ not in
alpha
True
Checking the existence of
key
 If you pass “value” of dictionary to search using “in”
it will return False
>>>‟apple‟ in
alpha False
To search for a value
we have to search in
dict.values()
>>>‟apple‟ in
alpha.values()
Pretty printing a
Dictionary
 We generally use print() to print the dictionary
in python. For e.g.
>>>alpha={"a":"apple","b":"boy","c":"cat","d":"d
og"}
>>>print(alpha)
{'a': 'apple', 'b': 'boy', 'c': 'cat', 'd': 'dog'}
To print dictionary in more readable form we use json
module. i.e. import json and then call the function
dumps()
Pretty printing a
Dictionary
>>>alpha={"a":"apple","b":"boy","c":"cat","d":"dog"}
>>>import json
>>> print(json.dumps(alpha,indent=2))
{
"a": "apple",
"c": "cat",
"b": "boy",
"d": "dog"
}
Counting frequency of elements in a list using
dictionary

 Create an empty dictionary

 Take up element from list “listname”
 Check if this element exists as a key in
the dictionary:
If not then add {key:value} to dictionary in
the form
{list-element:count of list element}
Program to count the frequency of list-
element using a dictionary
sentence="Python learning is great fun \
Python is interpreted language"
words = sentence.split()
d={}
for one in words:
key = one
if key not in d:
count = words.count(key)
d[key]=count
print("Counting frequencies in
list\n",words)
Dictionary functions and
methods
len() : it return the length of dictionary i.e. the
count of elements (key:value pairs) in dictionary
>>>alpha = {'a': 'apple', 'b': 'boy', 'c': 'cat', 'd':
'dog'}
>>> len(alpha)
4
clear() : this method removes all items from
dictionary and dictionary becomes empty dictionary
>>>alpha.clear()
>>>alpha # {}
Dictionary functions and
methods
However if you use “del” to delete dictionary it will
remove dictionary from memory
>>>alpha = {'a': 'apple', 'b': 'boy', 'c': 'cat', 'd':
'dog'}
>>>del alpha
>>>alpha #Error „alpha‟ is not defined
get() : this method is used value of given key, if key
not found it raises an exception
>>>alpha.get(„b # boy
‟) #Error, nothing will
>>>alpha.get(„z‟) print
Dictionary functions and
methods
>>>alpha.get(„z‟,‟not found‟)
Not found
items() : this method returns all the items in
the dictionary s a sequence of (key,value)
tuple
>>>alpha = {'a': 'apple', 'b': 'boy', 'c': 'cat',
'd': 'dog'}
>>> mytuple = alpha.items()
>>>for item in mytuple:
print(item)
Dictionary functions and
methods
>>>alpha = {'a': 'apple', 'b': 'boy', 'c': 'cat', 'd': 'dog'}
>>> mytuple = alpha.items()
>>>for key,value in mytuple:
print(key,value)
keys() : this method return all the keys in
the dictionary as a sequence of keys(not in list form)
>>> alpha.keys()
dict_keys(['a', 'b', 'c',
'd'])
Dictionary functions and
methods
>>>alpha = {'a': 'apple', 'b': 'boy', 'c': 'cat', 'd': 'dog'}
values() : this method return all the values in
the dictionary as a sequence of keys(a list form)
>>> alpha.values()
dict_values(['apple', 'boy', 'cat',
'dog'])

Update() method : this method merges the key:value

pari from the new dictionary into original dictionary,
adding or replacing as needed. The items in the new
dictionary are added to the old one and override
SACHIN BHARDWAJ, PGT(CS), KV NO.1
TEZPUR
Example of
update
>>> d1={1:100,2:200,3:300,4:400}
>>> d2={1:111,2:222,5:555,4:444}
>>> d1.update(d2)
>>> d1
{1: 111, 2: 222, 3: 300, 4: 444, 5: 555}
>>>d2
{1: 111, 2: 222, 5: 555, 4: 444}
It is equivalent to:
for key in d2.keys():
d1[key] =
d2[key]
VINOD KUMAR VERMA, PGT(CS), KV OEF KANPUR &
SACHIN BHARDWAJ, PGT(CS), KV NO.1
TEZPUR
Dictionary functions and
methods
fromkeys() : return new dictionary with the given set of elements
as the keys of the dictionary.
Default value is None

Given value is
assigned to each
key

List is assigned to
each key, as the list
updated dictionary
key values are
automatically
updated
Dictionary functions and
methods
copy() : as the name suggest, it will create a copy of dictionary.

Popitem() : it will remove the last dictionary item are

return key,value.

max() : this function return highest value in dictionary, this

will
work only if all the values in dictionary is of numeric type
 for more updates visit: www.python4csip.com

Dictionary functions and

methods
min() : this function return highest value in dictionary, this
will work only if all the values in dictionary is of numeric type.

sorted() : this function is used to sort the key or value of dictionary

in either ascending or descending order. By default it will sort the
keys.
Sorting the keys
Dictionary functions and
methods

Sorting values in Sorting values in

ascending descending
Program to how many times
characters appear in
count
dictionary
Program to create dictionary for storing
employee names and salary and access them
Program to create dictionary for storing
employee names and salary and access them
Program to create dictionary for storing
employee names and salary and access them