10.6: Chapter Summary

Highlights from this chapter include:

• A dictionary in Python is a container object including key-value pairs.
• The dict type implements a dictionary in Python.
• A dictionary cannot have duplicate keys.
• A dictionary is a mutable object but keys in the dictionary must be immutable objects.
• A dictionary can be created using curly braces or the dict() method.
• Values in the dictionary can be obtained through square bracket notation or the get() method.
• Dictionary items, keys, and values can be obtained using items(), keys(), and values() methods, respectively.
• Existing items can be modified or new items can be added to a dictionary using square brackets notation or the update() method.
• Items can be removed from a dictionary using the del keyword or the pop() method.
• Conditional statements can be used with a dictionary to check if the dictionary contains specific keys, values, or key-value pairs.
• Looping on a dictionary can be done by iterating over keys, values, or items.
• Nested dictionaries are dictionaries that are stored as values within another dictionary.
• With dictionary comprehension, elements of an iterable object are transformed into key-value pairs.

At this point, you should be able to use dictionaries in your programs. The programming practice below ties together most topics presented in the chapter.

Concept	Description
Dictionary creation using curly braces	my_dict = {key1:value1, key2:value2}
Dictionary creation using the dict() method	# Using a list my_list = [(key1, value1), (key2, value2)] my_dict = dict(my_list) # Using keyword arguments my_dict = dict(key1=value1, key2=value2) # From another dictionary old_dict = {key1: value1, key2: value2} new_dict = dict(old_dict)
Accessing dictionary items	my_dict = {key1: value1, key2: value2} # Accessing item using square bracket notation my_dict[key1] # Accessing item through get() method my_dict.get(key1)
Accessing all dictionary items	my_dict.items()
Accessing all dictionary keys	my_dict.keys()
Accessing all dictionary values	my_dict.values()
Adding a new key-value pair or updating an existing key-value pair	my_dict = {key1: value1, key2: value2} # Updating an item using square bracket notation my_dict[key1] = new_value # Adding a new key-value pair using square bracket notation my_dict[key3] = value3 # Updating an item using update() method my_dict.update({key1: new_value}) # Adding a new key-value pair using update() method my_dict.update({key3: value3})
Deleting a key-value pair from a dictionary	my_dict = {key1: value1, key2: value2} # Using del keyword del my_dict[key1] # Using pop() method deleted_value = my_dict.pop(key1)
Iterating over a dictionary	for key in dictionary: # Loop expression # Statements to execute in the loop #Statements to execute after the loop
Nested dictionaries	{ key_1:{key11:value11, key12:value12}, key_2:{key21:value21, key22:value22} }
Dictionary comprehension	{key_expression: value_expression for element in iterable}

Table 10.10 Chapter 10 reference.

Try It: Even and odd values

Given a list, create a dictionary with two keys, "even" and "odd". The values associated with each key must be the list of corresponding even and odd values in the given list.

    Input:
    input_list = [3, 5, 6, 1]

    Prints {"even": [6], "odd":[3, 5, 1]}

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