Dictionary

A dictionary as a set of key: value pairs, with the requirement that the keys are unique (within one dictionary).

Dictionaries are indexed by keys, which can be any immutable type; strings and numbers or tuples with immutable objects. The values of a dictionary can be of any type.

Each key is separated from its value by a colon (:), the items are separated by commas, and the whole thing is enclosed in curly braces. 

Creating a Dictionary

A pair of braces creates an empty dictionary: {}

Dictionary can also be created by the built-in function dict(). An empty dictionary can be created by just placing to curly braces{}.

Note – Dictionary keys are case sensitive, same name but different cases of Key will be treated distinctly.

Example to illustrate different ways to create a Dictionary

python"># Creating an empty Dictionary 

Dict = {} 

print("Empty Dictionary: ") 

print(Dict)

# Creating a Dictionary  with key:value pair

student_details = {'id':1234, "name":"John", 'course':'computer science','year' : 3 }

print "Student details: "

print student_details

# Creating a Dictionary with dict() method 

Dict = dict({'id':1234, "name":"John", 'course' : 'computer science', 'year' : 3 })

print("\nDictionary with the use of dict(): ") 

print(Dict) 

# Creating a Dictionary with each item as a Pair 

Dict = dict([(1, 'Geeks'), (2, 'For')]) 

Dict = dict([('id', 1234), ("name", "John"), ('course', 'computer science'), ('year', 3)])

print("\nDictionary with each item as a pair: ") 

print(Dict) 

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result −

python">Empty Dictionary: 

{}

Student details:

{'course': 'computer science', 'year': 3, 'id': 1234, 'name': 'John'}


Dictionary with the use of dict(): 

{'course': 'computer science', 'id': 1234, 'name': 'John', 'year': 3}


Dictionary with each item as a pair: 

{'course': 'computer science', 'year': 3, 'id': 1234, 'name': 'John'}

Updating a Dictionary

In Python Dictionary, Addition of elements can be done in multiple ways. 

One value at a time can be added to a Dictionary by defining value along with the key e.g. Dict[Key] = ‘Value’. For Example:

python">student_details = {'id': 1234, 'course': 'computer science', 'year': 3, 'name': 'John'}

student_details["gender"] = "female" # add a new entry

print student_details

When the the above code is executed it returns the fowllowing updated student details: – 

python">{'id': 1234, 'course': 'computer science', 'year': 3, 'name': 'John', “gender”: “female” }

You can modify an existing entry in a dictionary. For example, suppose we want to change the student course:

python">student_details[‘course’] = "Software Engineering" # update an existing entry

print student_details

The output of the above code when executed will be:

python">{'id': 1234, 'course': “Software Engineering”, 'year': 3, 'name': 'John', “gender”: “female” }

Updating an existing value in a Dictionary can be done by using the built-in update() method. Nested key values can also be added to an existing Dictionary.

Acc essing elements from a Dictionary

To access the items of a dictionary we refer to its key name. Key can be used inside square brackets.There is also a method called get() that will also help in acessing the element from a dictionary.

For Example to access student course and gender:

python">student_details = {'id': 1234, 'course': 'computer science', 'year': 3, 'name': 'John'}

print student[‘course’]
print student[‘gender’]

Result of the above code when executed:

"Software Engineering"
"female"

Using the get() method to access the student name

python">print student_details.get('name')

Output of the above code

"John"

Delete Dictionary Elements

You can either remove individual dictionary elements or clear the entire contents of a dictionary. You can also delete entire dictionary in a single operation.

To explicitly remove an entire dictionary, just use the del statement. For example −

python">dict = {'Name': 'Zara', 'Age': 7, 'Class': 'First'}

del dict['Name'] # remove entry with key 'Name'

dict.clear()     # remove all entries in dict

del dict         # delete entire dictionary


print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age']

print "dict['School']: ", dict['School']

Output: Note that an exception is raised because after del dictdictionary does not exist any more 

python">dict['Age']:

Traceback (most recent call last):

   File "test.py", line 8, in 

      print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age'];

TypeError: 'type' object is unsubscriptable

Looping Technique

When looping through dictionaries, the key and corresponding value can be retrieved at the same time using the items() method.

For example to print student_details key and val

python">students = {'course': 'computer science', 'id': 1234, 'name': 'John', 'year': 3}

for key, val in student.items():

    print key, val

Output of the above code when executed: 

course computer science

id 1234

name John

year 3

Built-in Dictionary Functions & Methods

Python includes the following dictionary functions −

Function with Description

cmp(dict1, dict2) Compares elements of both dict.

len(dict) Gives the total length of the dictionary. This would be equal to the number of items in the dictionary.

str(dict) Produces a printable string representation of a dictionary

type(variable) Returns the type of the passed variable. If passed variable is dictionary, then it would return a dictionary type.

 

Python includes following dictionary methods −

Sr.No.	Methods with Description
1	dict.clear() Removes all elements of dictionary dict
2	dict.copy() Returns a shallow copy of dictionary dict
3	dict.fromkeys() Create a new dictionary with keys from seq and values set to value.
4	dict.get(key, default=None) For key key, returns value or default if key not in dictionary
5	dict.has_key(key) Returns true if key in dictionary dict, false otherwise
6	dict.items() Returns a list of dict‘s (key, value) tuple pairs
7	dict.keys() Returns list of dictionary dict’s keys
8	dict.setdefault(key, default=None) Similar to get(), but will set dict[key]=default if key is not already in dict
9	dict.update(dict2) Adds dictionary dict2‘s key-values pairs to dict
10	dict.values() Returns list of dictionary dict‘s values