Python Dictionary with examples

Hello dear readers! Welcome back to another edition of our tutorial on Python. In this tutorial guide, we are going to be discussing about the Python Dictionary.

Each of the key is separated from its value by a colon (:), the items are separated by commas, and the whole stuff is being enclosed in curly braces. An empty dictionary without any items is written with just two curly braces, like this: {}.

Keys are unique within a dictionary while values may not. The values of a dictionary can be of any type, but they keys must be a fixed data type such as strings, numbers, or tuples.

Accessing Values in Dictionary

In order to access the dictionary elements, you can use the familiar square brackets along with the key to be able to obtain its value.

Example

Following is a simple example -

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Paul', 'Age': 20, 'Class': 'First'}
print "dict['Name']: ", dict['Name']
print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age']

Output

Below is the output of the above example -

dict['Name']:  Paul
dict['Age']:  20

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If we try to access a data item with a key, which is not a part of the dictionary, then we get an error as follows -

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Paul', 'Age': 20, 'Class': 'First'}
print "dict['Alice']: ", dict['Alice']

Output

Below is the output of the above example -

dict['Alice']:
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "test.py", line 4, in <module>
      print "dict['Alice']: ", dict['Alice'];
KeyError: 'Alice'

Updating Dictionary

A dictionary can easily be updated by including a new entry or key-value pair, by modifying an existing entry, or deleting an existing entry as shown in the simple example below -

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Paul', 'Age': 20, 'Class': 'First'}
dict['Age'] = 22; # update existing entry
dict['School'] = "DPS School"; # Add new entry

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

Output

Below is the output of the above example -

dict['Age']:  22
dict['School']:  DPS School

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Deleting Dictionary Elements

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

In order to explicitly remove an entire dictionary, just use the del statement.

Example

Following is a simple example -

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Paul', 'Age': 20, '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

This produces the following result. Note - That an exception is raised because after del dic, dictionary does not exist anymore.

dict['Age']:
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "test.py", line 8, in <module>
      print "dict['Age']: ", dict['Age'];
TypeError: 'type' object is unsubscriptable

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Properties of Dictionary Keys

The Python dictionary values has no restrictions at all. They can be any Python object, either standard objects or user-defined objects. However, same is not true for the keys.

There are two important points to take note of about dictionary keys -

(a) - More than one entry per key is not allowed. Which means that no duplicate key is allowed. When any duplicate keys are encountered during an assignment, then the last assignment wins.

Example

The following below is a simple example -

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {'Name': 'Paul', 'Age': 20, 'Name': 'Sophia'}
print "dict['Name']: ", dict['Name']

Output

Below is the output of the above example -

dict['Name']:  Sophia

(b) - Keys must be immutable. Which means you can use strings, numbers, or even tuples as Python dictionary keys but something like ['keys'] is not allowed.

Example

Following is a simple example -

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {['Name']: 'Paul', 'Age': 20}
print "dict['Name']: ", dict['Name']

Output

Below is the output of the above example -

Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "test.py", line 3, in <module>
      dict = {['Name']: 'Paul', 'Age': 20};
TypeError: unhashable type: 'list'

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Built-in Python Dictionary Functions

The following table below is a list of dictionary functions which are included by Python -

Sr.No.	Function with Description
1	cmp(dict1, dict2) Compares elements of both dict.
2	len(dict) Gives the total length of the dictionary. This would be equal to the number of items in the dictionary.
3	str(dict) Produces a printable string representation of a dictionary
4	type(variable) Returns the type of the passed variable. If passed variable is dictionary, then it would return a dictionary type.

Buit-in Python Dictionary Methods

The following table below is a list of dictionary methods available in Python -

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 setto 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 falseotherwise
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

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Alright guys! This is where we are rounding up for this tutorial post. In our next tutorial, we are going to be discussing about Python the dictionary cmp() Method.

Feel free to ask your questions where necessary and i will attend to them as soon as possible. If this tutorial was helpful to you, you can use the share button to share this tutorial.

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Thanks for reading and bye for now.