6/26/2016

Python Dictionaries

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Python Dictionaries
Aside: one thing I dislike about the ofcial Python documentation is
that only a small percentage of entries have example code. We should
change that...)
One of the keys to becoming a better Python programmer is to have a solid
grasp of Python's built-in data structures. Using the structured format below,
today you'll learn what a dict is, when to use it, and see example code of
all of its member functions. I have some other data structures in the works,
so this may turn into a little series.

Dictionary
AKA
"Associate Array", "Map", "Hash Map", "Unordered Map"

Library
built-in

Description
Contains a series of key -> value mappings where the "key" is of any type
that is hashable (meaning it has both a __eq__() and a __hash__()
method). The "value" may be of any type and value types need not be
homogeneous.
That means, for example, we can have a dictionary where some keys map to
strings and others to ints. Probably not a great idea in practice, but there's
nothing stopping you from doing it.

What Makes it Special

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What Makes it Special

The conceptual implementation is that of a hash table, so checks for
existence are quite fast. That means we can determine if a specic key is
present in the dictionary without needing to examine every element (which
gets slower as the dictionary gets bigger). The Python interpreter can just go
to the location key "should be" at (if it's in the dictionary) and see if key is
actually there.

Construction
Literal
{}: pair of braces for empty dictionary
{1:2, 3:4}: comma-separated list of the form key: value

enclosed by braces

Constructor
dict(one=2, three=4): using dict() with keyword arguments

mapping keys to values (where one and two are valid identiers)
dict([(1, 2), (3, 4)]): using dict() with an iterable

containing iterables with exactly two objects, the key and value
dict(zip([1, 3], [2, 4])): using dict() with two iterables of
equal length; the rst contains a list of keys and the second contains
their associated values.
dict({1:2, 3:4}): using dict() with the literal form as an
argument. This is silly. Why would you want this?

Mutability
mutable

Ordering
undefined

When to Use It
When describing what you want to do, if you use the word "map" (or
"match"), chances are good you need a dictionary. Use whenever a mapping
from a key to a value is required.

Example Usage
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Example Usage

Python Dictionaries

state_capitals={
'New York': 'Albany',
'New Jersey': 'Trenton',
}

"New York" is a key and "Albany" is a value. This allows us to retrieve a

state's capital if we have the state's name by doing capital =
state_capitals[state]

How Not to Use It

Remember, the great thing about dictionaries is we can nd a value instantly,
without needing to search through the whole dictionary manually, using the
form value = my_dict['key'] or value = my_dict.get('key',
None).
If you're searching for a value in a dictionary and you use a for loop,
you're doing it wrong. Stop, go back, and read the previous statement.
All too often in beginner code I see the equivalent of the following (continuing
the previous example):
state_im_looking_for = 'New Jersey'
my_capital = ''
for state in state_capitals:
if state == state_im_looking_for:
my_capital = state_capitals[state]

Or like this:
state_im_looking_for = 'New Jersey'
my_capital = ''
for state, capital in state_capitals.items():
if state == state_im_looking_for:
my_capital = capital

Methods and Uses

d.clear()
Remove all entries in d

Returns
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Python Dictionaries

N/A

Raises
N/A

Examples
Delete all items in a dictionary
d.clear()

d.copy()
Make a shallow copy of d. The dictionary returned by d.copy() will have
the same references as d, not copies of the items.

Returns
A new dict, representing a shallow copy of d

Raises
N/A

Examples
Create copy of a dictionary
d = {1: 'a', 2: 'b', 3: 'c'}
copied_dict = d.copy()
copied_dict # {1: 'a', 2: 'b', 3: 'c'}
d[1] = 'z'
copied_dict # {1: 'a', 2: 'b', 3: 'c'}

del k[d]
Used to remove a value from a dictionary

Returns
N/A

Raises
KeyError if key is not in dictionary

Examples
Delete entry with key 'hello'
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Python Dictionaries

my_dictionary = {'hello': 1, 'goodbye': 2}

del my_dictionary['hello']
print(my_dictionary)
# {'goodbye': 2}

dict.fromkeys(seq[, value])
Create a new dictionary with the same keys as seq. If value is provided,
each item's value is set to value. If value is not set, all item values are
set to None

Returns
N/A

Raises
N/A

Examples
Create a dictionary from a list with all values initialized to 0
my_list = [1, 2, 3]
my_dictionary = dict.fromkeys(my_list, 0)
my_dictionary # {1: 0, 2: 0, 3: 0}

Create a dictionary from a dictionary with all values automatically initialized

to None
my_dictionary = {1: 1, 2: 2, 3: 3}
new_dictionary = dict.fromkeys(my_dictionary)
my_dictionary # {1: None, 2: None, 3: None}

d.get(key[, default)
Used to retrieve the value associated with key key. The value of default
is returned if key is not in d (rather than raising a KeyError). The
default value of default is None.

Returns
Roughly equivalent to:

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Python Dictionaries

def get(key, default=None):

if key in d:
return d[k]
else:
return default

Raises
N/A

Examples
Get a key's value or None if the key isn't present
{1: 'a', 2: 'b'}.get(3)

k in d
Used to iterate over the keys, values, or both of the dictionary.

Returns
N/A

Raises
N/A

Examples
Iterate over keys
for key in my_dictionary:

Iterate over (key, value) tuples

for key, value in my_dictionary.items():

Iterate over values

for value in my_dictionary.values():

Check for existence

haystack = {}
# ...
if 'needle' in haystack:

iter(d)
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Python Dictionaries

Used to iterate over the keys of d

Returns
An iterator which iterates over the keys of d

Raises
StopIteration when d has no more keys

Examples
Iterate over keys
for key in my_dictionary:

d[key]
Used to access the value corresponding to the key key in d.

Returns
Value associated with the key (heterogeneous)

Raises
KeyError when key is not a member of d.

Examples
capitals = {'New York': 'Albany'}`
capital_of_ny = capitals['New York']`
print capital_of_ny`
'Albany'

len(d)
Used to determine the number of entries in a dictionary

Returns
Length of dictionary d

Raises
N/A

Examples
print 'dictionary has {} entries'.format(len(d))

k not in d

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Python Dictionaries

k not in d
Used for negative existence check. Equivalent to not key in value

Returns
True if key is not in value, False otherwise

Raises
N/A

Examples
Check for negative existence
haystack = {}
# ...
if 'needle' not in haystack:

d.keys()
Iterate over the keys in a dictionary

Returns
An iterable over all of the keys in d (in an unspecied order)

Raises
StopIteration when d has no more keys

Examples
Iterate over keys:
for key in d.keys():

d.values()
Iterate over the values in a dictionary

Returns
An iterable over all of the values in d (in an unspecied order)

Raises
StopIteration when d has no more values

Examples
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Python Dictionaries

Iterate over values:

for value in d.values():

d.items()
Iterate over the elements ((key, value) pairs) in a dictionary

Returns
An iterable over all of the (key, value) pairs in d (in an unspecied order).
Each (key, value) pairs is represented as a tuple.

Raises
StopIteration when d has no more elements

Examples
Iterate over items:
for key, value in d.items():

Note that, in the example, we can use multiple assignment to assign key to
the key and value to the value of each item directly in the for loop.

d.pop(key[, default])
Used to remove an item from a dictionary and return its associated value

Returns
d[key] if key is in d. If key is not in d but default is specied, the
default value is returned instead.

Raises
KeyError if key is not in dictionary and no default is specied

Examples
Delete entry with key 'hello' and print its value
my_dictionary = {'hello': 1, 'goodbye': 2}
hello_value = my_dictionary.pop('hello')
print(hello_value)
#1
print(my_dictionary)
# {'goodbye': 2}
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Python Dictionaries

With default specied

my_dictionary = {'hello': 1, 'goodbye': 2}
foo_value = my_dictionary.pop('foo', None)
print(foo_value)
# None
print(my_dictionary)
# {'goodbye': 2}

With no default specied

my_dictionary = {'hello': 1, 'goodbye': 2}
foo_value = my_dictionary.pop('foo')
# KeyError: 'foo'

d.popitem()
Pop (i.e. delete and return) a random element from the dictionary

Returns
A (key, value) tuple if d is not empty.

Raises
KeyError if d is empty. I personally think that's a stupid exception to raise

since no key was ever specied, but, hey, I didn't write the language.

Examples
Destructively iterate over values:
try:
key, value = d.popitem():
print 'Got {}: {}'.format(key, value)
except KeyError:
print 'Done'

d.setdefault(key[, default])
Get a key from the dictionary or, if it's not there, insert it with a default
value and return that. default, erm, defaults to None

Returns
d[key] if key is in d.

If not, do d[key] = default and then return d[key] (which will always
return default).

Raises

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Python Dictionaries

Raises
N/A

Examples
Count the number of times each word is seen in a le:
words = {}
for word in file:
occurrences = words.setdefault(word, 0)
words[word] = occurrences + 1

d.update(other)
Update a dictionary with the keys and values in other, overwriting existing
keys and values if there is any overlap.

Returns
None

Raises
N/A

Examples
Merge two dictionaries:
first = {'a': 1}
second = {'b': 2}
first.update(second)
print first
# {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
print second
# {'b': 2}

Using keyword arguments for other:

first = {'a': 1}
first.update(b=2, c=3)
print first
# {'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 2}
Posted on Aug 30, 2015 by Jeff Knupp

Previous Post: Flask and SQLAlchemy Magic

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Python Dictionaries

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6 months ago

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their knowledge about Phyton in programming. At least, they know the
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