python dictionary

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A dictionary can be thought of as an unordered set of key: value pairs.

A pair of braces creates an empty dictionary: {}. Each element can maps to a certain value. An integer or string can be used for the index. Dictonaries do not have an order.

Dictionary example

Let us make a simple dictionary:

#!/usr/bin/python

words = {}
words["Hello"] = "Bonjour"
words["Yes"] = "Oui"
words["No"] = "Non"
words["Bye"] = "Au Revoir"

print(words["Hello"])
print(words["No"])

Output:


Bonjour
Non

We are by no means limited to single word defintions in the value part. A demonstration:

#!/usr/bin/python

dict = {}
dict['Ford'] = "Car"
dict['Python'] = "The Python Programming Language"
dict[2] = "This sentence is stored here."

print(dict['Ford'])
print(dict['Python'])
print(dict[2])

Output:


Car
The Python Programming Language
This sentence is stored here.

Manipulating the dictionary

We can manipulate the data stored in a dictionairy after declaration. This is shown in the example below:

#!/usr/bin/python

words = {}
words["Hello"] = "Bonjour"
words["Yes"] = "Oui"
words["No"] = "Non"
words["Bye"] = "Au Revoir"

print(words)           # print key-pairs.
del words["Yes"]       # delete a key-pair.
print(words)           # print key-pairs.
words["Yes"] = "Oui!"  # add new key-pair.
print(words)           # print key-pairs.

Output:


{'Yes': 'Oui', 'Bye': 'Au Revoir', 'Hello': 'Bonjour', 'No': 'Non'}
{'Bye': 'Au Revoir', 'Hello': 'Bonjour', 'No': 'Non'}
{'Yes': 'Oui!', 'Bye': 'Au Revoir', 'Hello': 'Bonjour', 'No': 'Non'}

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Posted in beginner

2016-03-15

Leave a Reply:

Stuartjk • Mon, 11 May 2015

Why in this example, does "print" output the dictionary out of any logical order?

Ordering by input order should be - hello, yes, no, bye
Ordering by key should be - bye, hello, no, yes
Ordering by value should be - bye, hello, no, yes

yet it orders - yes, bye, hello, no

The same occurs in my own example therefore must be applying some logic to it. Understanding the logic behind this ordering may be key to interpreting the output of "print words".

Frank • Mon, 11 May 2015

This is by design, the dictionary data structure does not have inherent order. You can iterate through the dictionary but there is nothing to guarantee that the iteration will follow an order. You cannot sort a dictonary but you can get a representation that is sorted (in form of a list). An example:

#!/usr/bin/python

words = {}
words["Hello"] = "Bonjour"
words["Yes"] = "Oui"
words["No"] = "Non"
words["Bye"] = "Au Revoir"

print words            # print key-pairs.

sortList = sorted(words.items(), key=lambda x: x[1])
print sortList

sorted() Returns a new sorted list from the items in iterable. You could create a new dictionary from that list, but there is no guarantee that it will stay sorted.

Akash • Fri, 05 Jun 2015

dict is keyword or variable here?

Frank • Fri, 05 Jun 2015

In the example dict is a variable that you can access. But dictionaries as a datastructure is available in python

Seyed Ismail • Mon, 15 Jun 2015

{'Hello': 'Bonjour', 'Yes': 'Oui', 'No': 'Non', 'Bye': 'Au Revoir'}
{'Hello': 'Bonjour', 'No': 'Non', 'Bye': 'Au Revoir'}
{'Hello': 'Bonjour', 'Yes': 'Oui!', 'No': 'Non', 'Bye': 'Au Revoir'}

It is coming like this now. Great!

Rizwan • Sat, 11 Jul 2015

You can also initialize this way data = {"name":"riz", "country":"India"}

Anuj • Wed, 15 Jul 2015

words = {}
words["Hello"] = "Bonjour"
words["Yes"] = "Oui"
words["No"] = "Non"
words["Bye"] = "Au Revoir"
 
print words            # print key-pairs.
del words["Yes"]       # delete a key-pair.
print words            # print key-pairs.
words["Yes"] = "Oui!"  # add new key-pair.
print words            # print key-pairs.

Why does it printout in order of: 'yes' 'no' 'hello' 'no' ???

Frank • Wed, 15 Jul 2015

Hi,dictionary in python do not have specific order. It's simply a key,value mapping. See one of the comments below if you want them in order :-)

Os • Wed, 26 Aug 2015

yes,no,bye,my name is,=('Oui', 'Non', 'Au revoir', 'Je mappele',) why does this not work

Frank • Wed, 26 Aug 2015

Variables cannot contain spaces. This will work:

#!/usr/bin/env python

yes,no,bye,myNameIs=('Oui', 'Non', 'Au revoir', 'Je mappele',)

print(yes)
print(no)
print(bye)
print(myNameIs)

Jacco Van Dorp • Wed, 11 Nov 2015

I've got a little problem which I believe originates from my lack of understanding of dictionaries. Here's a slimmed down version of my code;

class Sensor:
name= ""
iteration = 0
data= []

def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name

def writedata(self, data=[0,0,0,0]):
self.data.append(data)
self.iteration = self.iteration + 1

def report(dict):
name = {}
iteration = {}
data = {}
for i in dict:
name[i] = dict[i].name
data[i] = dict[i].data
iteration[i] = dict[i].iteration
print("Report:")
for i in dict:
print("Name: " + name[i] + " Iteration: " + str(iteration[i]))
for j in data[i]:
print (j)

After which I run the following:

foo = {}
foo["ID0"] = Sensor("ID0")
foo["ID1"] = Sensor("ID1")
report(foo)
foo["ID0"].writedata([0,1,2,3])
foo["ID0"].writedata([5,6,7,8])
report(foo)
foo["ID1"].writedata([10,11,12,13])
foo["ID1"].writedata([15,16,17,18])
report(foo)

So what I'm basically doing is using this dictionary to store my different instances of the Sensor class. however, when I progress their methods, they seem to append the data lists to all instances of the Sensor class, not just the one specified. The output from the last report looks like this:

Report:
Name: ID1 Iteration: 2
[0, 1, 2, 3]
[5, 6, 7, 8]
[10, 11, 12, 13]
[15, 16, 17, 18]
Name: ID0 Iteration: 2
[0, 1, 2, 3]
[5, 6, 7, 8]
[10, 11, 12, 13]
[15, 16, 17, 18]

One of the weird things happening here is that the Iteration count does seem to update only at the specified instance of Sensor, whereas the data modifications applies to all of them. Do you have any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks for your time in advance.

Frank • Fri, 13 Nov 2015

Things have been pretty busy, I'll reply to you as soon as I get the chance.

Frank • Fri, 20 Nov 2015

Hi, sorry for the late reply, it's been extremely busy at my job. You are right. Both objects contain the list [[0, 1, 2, 3], [5, 6, 7, 8], [10, 11, 12, 13], [15, 16, 17, 18]]. Initializing the list in the constructor seems to solve the issue. Add the line self.data = [] in the constructor.

class Sensor:
    name= ""
    iteration = 0
    data= []

    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name
        self.data = []

    def writedata(self, data=[0,0,0,0]):
        self.data.append(data)
        self.iteration = self.iteration + 1

def report(dict):
    name = {}
    iteration = {}
    data = {}

    for i in dict:
        name[i] = dict[i].name
        data[i] = dict[i].data
        iteration[i] = dict[i].iteration
        print("Report:")

    for i in dict:
        print("Name: " + name[i] + " Iteration: " + str(iteration[i]))

    for j in data[i]:
        print (j)

foo = {}
foo["ID0"] = Sensor("ID0")
foo["ID1"] = Sensor("ID1")
report(foo)
foo["ID0"].writedata([0,1,2,3])
foo["ID0"].writedata([5,6,7,8])
report(foo)
foo["ID1"].writedata([10,11,12,13])
foo["ID1"].writedata([15,16,17,18])
report(foo)


print "\nFinal situation:\n"
for i in foo:
    print foo[i].name, foo[i].data

Output:

Report:
Report:
Name: ID0 Iteration: 0
Name: ID1 Iteration: 0
Report:
Report:
Name: ID0 Iteration: 2
Name: ID1 Iteration: 0
Report:
Report:
Name: ID0 Iteration: 2
Name: ID1 Iteration: 2
[10, 11, 12, 13]
[15, 16, 17, 18]

Final situation:

ID0 [[0, 1, 2, 3], [5, 6, 7, 8]]
ID1 [[10, 11, 12, 13], [15, 16, 17, 18]]

Jam • Thu, 14 Jul 2016

hi,
I am a new learner of Python, and confused of single quotation(' ') and double quotation(" ") marks.
here is an example:


words = {}
words["Hello"] = "Bonjour"
words["Yes"] = "Oui"
words["No"] = "Non"
words["Bye"] = "Au Revoir"
print words            # print key-pairs.
Output:
{'Yes': 'Oui', 'Bye': 'Au Revoir', 'Hello': 'Bonjour', 'No': 'Non'}

So, why the output is not {Yes: Oui, Bye: Au Revoir, Hello: Bonjour, No: Non} ?
And what's the difference between this two definitions, does( " " ) means TWO( ' ' ) ?

 
words["Hello"] = "Bonjour"  #double quotation 
words['Hello'] = "Bonjour"     #single quotation

Thanks.

Frank • Fri, 15 Jul 2016

There is no specific difference between single and double quotation in the Python language, it's just a matter of preference. Python supports single, double and triple quotes. Output is always single quotes