Python Dictionaries

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Defining a Dictionary
• Modifying a Dictionary
• List vs Tuple vs Dictionary
• Dictionary Methods

Introduction

Just like lists, Python dictionaries (dict) are another mutable data structure. However, in contrast to lists and tuples, dictionaries are unordered. That is, the order of the elements is not important. Instead, each value has an associated key. We retrieve values by specifying the corresponding keys. Keys are unique within a dictionary while values may not be unique. The values of a dictionary can be of any type, but the keys must be of an immutable data type such as strings, numbers, or tuples.

Defining a Dictionary

A Python dictionary is written as a sequence of comma-separated key:value pairs enclosed within a pair of curly braces {}. The following creates a dictionary of exam scores with the corresponding student names as keys.

Example

1scores = {"Carol":81, "Sammy":85, "Derrick":68, "Juan":72}
2scores

{'Carol': 81, 'Sammy': 85, 'Derrick': 68, 'Juan': 72}

The following example demonstrates that dictionaries are unordered, i.e. order of the elements is inconsequential.

Example

1table1 = {"Name": "Candice", "Age":22, "Gender": "Female", "Home": "NY"}
2table2 = {"Gender": "Female", "Name": "Candice", "Home": "NY", "Age":22}
3table1 == table2

True

We can access specific values of a dictionary using their corresponding keys. In the previous example of scores, the keys are the names of the students.

Example

1scores["Juan"]

72

Example

1dict1 = {1: 'apple', 2: 'orange',3:'banana'}
2dict1

{1: 'apple', 2: 'orange', 3: 'banana'}

Example

1dict2 = {'weather': 'thunderstorms', 1: [2, 4, 3], (20,30):92}
2dict2

{'weather': 'thunderstorms', 1: [2, 4, 3], (20, 30): 92}

Example

1dict2[(20,30)] # the key is a tuple

92

Modifying a Dictionary

Dictionaries are mutable. We can modify a dictionary by adding a new entry or a key-value pair, modifying an existing entry, or deleting an existing entry.

Example

1entry = {'name': 'Wendy', 'age': 26, 'gender':'female','height':173}
2entry['age']=27 #update an existing value
3entry

{'name': 'Wendy', 'age': 27, 'gender': 'female', 'height': 173}

Example

1entry['country']= 'Canada' # add an additional item
2entry

{'name': 'Wendy',
 'age': 27,
 'gender': 'female',
 'height': 173,
 'country': 'Canada'}

We can remove a particular item in a dictionary using the del keyword.

Example

1del entry['height']
2entry

{'name': 'Wendy', 'age': 27, 'gender': 'female', 'country': 'Canada'}

Or we can delete the entire dictionary using the del keyword.

Example

1del entry
2entry

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

NameError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)

~\AppData\Local\Temp/ipykernel_24020/597969434.py in <module>
      1 del entry
----> 2 entry


NameError: name 'entry' is not defined

In the above example, an error is reported since the dictionary has been deleted.

List vs Tuple vs Dictionary

At this point, let us summarize the key properties of the three types of data structures we have learnt so far.

Both lists and tuples are made up of ordered elements which are referenced using indices. The order of the elements is important. For example, [1,2,3] is not the same list as [3,1,2]. A dictionary is unordered since there is no inherent order for its elements. For example, {'a':1 , 'b':2, 'c':3} is the same dictionary as {'b':2 , 'a':1 , 'c':3}. All three data structures are indexed since elements can be referenced using indices for lists and tuples, and keys for dictionaries. Finally, all data structures are mutable except tubles. That is, both lists and dictionaries can be modified without creating a new object.

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Dictionary Methods

We can remove a particular item in a dictionary by using the pop() method. This method removes an item with the specified key and returns its value.

Example

1dict1 = {1: 'apple', 2: 'orange',3:'banana',4:'pineapple'}
2dict1.pop(2)

'orange'

1dict1 # dictionary with above item removed

{1: 'apple', 3: 'banana', 4: 'pineapple'}

We will get an error if the specified key does not exist.

Example

1dict1.pop(8)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

KeyError                                  Traceback (most recent call last)

~\AppData\Local\Temp/ipykernel_24020/2520149429.py in <module>
----> 1 dict1.pop(8)


KeyError: 8

However, we can specify a default value to return if the specified key does not exist.

Example

1dict1.pop(8,"no such key")

'no such key'

The popitem() method removes the last item from the dictionary. The method returns the removed item as a tuple.

Example

1dict1 = {1: 'apple', 2: 'orange',3:'banana',4:'pineapple'}
2dict1.popitem()

(4, 'pineapple')

1dict1 # updated

{1: 'apple', 2: 'orange', 3: 'banana'}

The clear() method removes all items from the dictionary.

Example

1dict1.clear()
2dict1

{}

Since dictionaries are mutable, the copy() method is available to create an independent duplicate of an existing dictionary. In the following example, dict2 is created as a copy of dict1. dict1 then has its last item removed. But dict2 is not affected.

Example

1dict1 = {1: 'apple', 2: 'orange',3:'banana',4:'pineapple'}
2dict2 = dict1.copy()
3dict1.popitem()
4dict2

{1: 'apple', 2: 'orange', 3: 'banana', 4: 'pineapple'}

If we had used the assignment dict2 = dict1, then dict2 will be affected as well.

Example

1dict1 = {1: 'apple', 2: 'orange',3:'banana',4:'pineapple'}
2dict2 = dict1
3dict1.popitem()
4dict2

{1: 'apple', 2: 'orange', 3: 'banana'}

The keys() method returns the keys of the dictionary as a view object.

Example

1dict1 = {1: 'apple', 2: 'orange',3:'banana',4:'pineapple'}
2dict1.keys()

dict_keys([1, 2, 3, 4])

The values() method returns the values of the dictionary as a view object.

Example

1dict1.values()

dict_values(['apple', 'orange', 'banana', 'pineapple'])

These view objects are dynamic view objects, meaning that when the dictionary changes, the view reflects these changes. For example, the keys view object is not just a mere copy of the keys at a given point in time, but rather a window that shows you the keys exactly; if they are changed, then what you see through the window change as well.

Let’s take a look at the following example.

Example

We first assign the view object of the values to a new variable.

1dictVals = dict1.values()
2dictVals

dict_values(['apple', 'orange', 'banana', 'pineapple'])

Now we modify the dictionary. The view object reflects the changes.

1dict1[2] = "kiwi"
2dictVals

dict_values(['apple', 'kiwi', 'banana', 'pineapple'])

To merge two dictionaries, we use the pipe | character.

Example

1scores1 = {"Carol":81, "Sammy":85, "Derrick":68, "Juan":72}
2scores2 = {"Wendy":79, "Tom":86}
3allScores = scores1 | scores2
4print(allScores)

{'Carol': 81, 'Sammy': 85, 'Derrick': 68, 'Juan': 72, 'Wendy': 79, 'Tom': 86}

The get() method returns the value corresponding to the specified key.

Example

1allScores.get("Tom")

86

The following returns nothing since the key does not exist.

Example

1allScores.get("Hamilton")

There is no output above since the key does not exist. However, We can use an optional default value in this case.

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Example

1allScores.get("Hamilton", "N/A")  # default value is "N/A"

'N/A'

The setdefault(key, optional default value) method returns the value of the specified key. If the key does not exist, a new item is created with the specified key and the specified default value.

Example

1allScores.setdefault("Tom",100) # this key exists, so the default value (100) is ignored.

86

Example

1allScores.setdefault("Lisa",100)  # this key does not exist, a new item with the default value is inserted.
2allScores

{'Carol': 81,
 'Sammy': 85,
 'Derrick': 68,
 'Juan': 72,
 'Wendy': 79,
 'Tom': 86,
 'Lisa': 100}

If the default value is not provided, the new item’s value will be set to None.

Example

1allScores.setdefault("Cod")
2allScores

{'Carol': 81,
 'Sammy': 85,
 'Derrick': 68,
 'Juan': 72,
 'Wendy': 79,
 'Tom': 86,
 'Lisa': 100,
 'Cod': None}

Let’s summarize all the dictionary methods we have learnt.