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Python Dictionaries

Updated on Jan 07, 2020

Dictionary is a python data type that is used to store key-value pairs. It enables you to quickly retrieve, add, remove, modify, values using a key. Dictionary is very similar to what we call associative array or hash on other languages.

note:

Dictionaries are mutable.

Creating a Dictionary #

Dictionaries can be created using a pair of curly braces ({}). Each item in the dictionary consists of a key, followed by a colon, which is followed by a value. And each item is separated using commas (,). Let's take an example.

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friends = {
'tom' : '111-222-333',
'jerry' : '666-33-111'
}

here friends is a dictionary with two items. One point to note that key must be of a hashable type, but the value can be of any type. Each key in the dictionary must be unique.

>>> dict_emp = {} # this will create an empty dictionary

Retrieving, modifying and adding elements in the dictionary #

To get an item from the dictionary, use the following syntax:

>>> dictionary_name['key']

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>>> friends['tom']
'111-222-333'

If the key exists in the dictionary, the value will be returned, otherwise a KeyError exception will be thrown. To add or modify an item, use the following syntax:

>>> dictionary_name['newkey'] = 'newvalue'

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>>> friends['bob'] = '888-999-666'
>>> friends
 {'tom': '111-222-333', 'bob': '888-999-666', 'jerry': '666-33-111'}

Deleting Items from the dictionary. #

>>> del dictionary_name['key']

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>>>  del friends['bob']
>>>  friends
{'tom': '111-222-333', 'jerry': '666-33-111'}

If the key is found the item will be deleted, otherwise a KeyError exception will be thrown.

Looping items in the dictionary #

You can use for loop to traverse elements in the dictionary.

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>>> friends = {
... 'tom' : '111-222-333',
... 'jerry' : '666-33-111'
...}
>>>
>>> for key in friends:
...     print(key, ":", friends[key])
...
tom : 111-222-333
jerry : 666-33-111
>>>
>>>

Find the length of the dictionary #

You can use the len() function to find the length of the dictionary.

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>>> len(friends)
2

in or not in operators #

in and not in operators to check whether key exists in the dictionary.

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>>> 'tom' in friends
True
>>> 'tom' not in friends
False

Equality Tests in dictionary #

The == and != operators tells whether dictionary contains the same items not.

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>>> d1 = {"mike":41, "bob":3}
>>> d2 = {"bob":3, "mike":41}
>>> d1 == d2
True
>>> d1 != d2
False
>>>

note:

You can't use other relational operators like <, >, >=, <= to compare dictionaries.

Dictionary methods #

Python provides several built-in methods for working with dictionaries.

Methods Description
popitem() Returns randomly selected item from the dictionary and also remove the selected item.
clear() Delete everything from a dictionary
keys() Return keys in the dictionary as tuples
values() Return values in dictionary as tuples
get(key) Return value of key, if key is not found it returns None, instead of throwing KeyError exception
pop(key) Remove the item from the dictionary, if the key is not found KeyError will be thrown 
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>>> friends = {'tom': '111-222-333', 'bob': '888-999-666', 'jerry': '666-33-111'}
>>>
>>> friends.popitem()
('tom', '111-222-333')
>>>
>>> friends.clear()
>>>
>>> friends
{}
>>>
>>> friends = {'tom': '111-222-333', 'bob': '888-999-666', 'jerry': '666-33-111'}
>>>
>>> friends.keys()
dict_keys(['tom', 'bob', 'jerry'])
>>>
>>> friends.values()
dict_values(['111-222-333', '888-999-666', '666-33-111'])
>>>
>>> friends.get('tom')
'111-222-333'
>>>
>>> friends.get('mike', 'Not Exists')
'Not Exists'
>>>
>>> friends.pop('bob')
'888-999-666'
>>>
>>> friends
{'tom': '111-222-333', 'jerry': '666-33-111'}

In the next post, we will learn about Python tuples.

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