Table of Contents

Python - (Dictionary|Map)

About

A dictionary is similar to a list, but you access values by looking up a key instead of an index.

A key can be any string or number.

A dictionary is suitable for representing functions with finite domains.

Dictionaries are great for pairing (a name with a phone number or with an e-mail address).

Dictionaries are:

The keys must be immutable.

Syntax

Dictionaries are enclosed in curly braces that contains key: 

dict_name = {'key1' : 1, 'key2' : 2, 'key3' : 3}

where:

An empty dictionary: 

dict_name = {}

Initialization

One dimension

An empty dict is created 

myEmptyDict = {}

myEmptyDict = dict()

A dict with values can be initialized: 

myDict = dict(a=1,b=2,c=3)

myDict = {'a':1,'b':2,'c':3}

You can also construct a dictionary using a comprehension. 

>>> { (x,y):x*y for x in [1,2] for y in [1,2] }
{(1, 2): 2, (1, 1): 1, (2, 1): 2, (2, 2): 4}
>>> { key:value for (key,value) in [(3,2),(4,0),(100,1)] }
{100: 1, 3: 2, 4: 0}

Multi-dimensional

new_dic = {}
new_dic[1] = {}
new_dic[1][2] = 5

Example

prices = {
"banana": 4,
"apple": 2,
"orange": 1.5,
"pear": 3,
}

Get

Access the value of a key

ie Indexing. 

print d['key1']

1


>>> {'key1' : 1, 'key2' : 2, 'key3' : 3}['key1']
1

Get the keys and/of values

prices = {
"banana": 4,
"apple": 2,
"orange": 1.5,
"pear": 3,
}
>>> prices.keys()
dict_keys(['orange', 'apple', 'pear', 'banana'])
>>> prices.values()
dict_values([1.5, 2, 3, 4])

Get its length

The length len() of a dictionary is the number of key-value pairs it has. 

print len(dict_name)

3


print myDict.items() #

Set

Add a new entry or set a new value

A new key-value pair in a dictionary is created by assigning a new key. 

dict_name[new_key] = new_value

A new value is associated to a key value with the same syntax: 

dict_name[existing_key] = new_value

Put a list inside a dictionary

You can put lists inside dictionaries. 

dict_name['myListKey'] = ['Element1', 'Element2', 'Element3']

Delete an entry

Items can be removed from a dictionary with the del command: 

del dict_name[key_name]

It will remove the key key_name and its associated value from the dictionary.

Operator

Check if a key exist

if key in d:
        d[key] += 1
    else:
        d[key] = 1

In a comprehension: 

>>> myDict = {'Nico':40}
>>> 'Gerard' in myDict
False
>>> myDict['Gerard'] if 'Gerard' in myDict else 'Not Present'
'Not Present'

Iteration

Python - (Loop|Iteration)

Key

for key in dict_name: 
    print dict_name[key]

key and value

When looping through dictionaries, the key and corresponding value can be retrieved at the same time using: 

map = {1:1,2:2}
for k, v in iter(map.items()):
    print(k,':',v)

knights = {'gallahad': 'the pure', 'robin': 'the brave'}
for k, v in knights.iteritems():
    print k, v

gallahad the pure
robin the brave

Comprehension

Python - Comprehension (Iteration)

Get the value in a list of dictionary

>>> dlist = [{'James':'Sean', 'director':'Terence'}, {'James':'Roger','director':'Lewis'}, {'James':'Pierce', 'director':'Roger'}]
>>> k = 'James'
>>> [ i[k] for i in dlist]
['Sean', 'Roger', 'Pierce']

Iterate over Key or values

>>> [2*x for x in {4:'a',3:'b'}.keys() ]
[6, 8]
>>> [x for x in {4:'a', 3:'b'}.values()]
['b', 'a']

Iterate over the pairs (key, value)

>>> prices = {"banana": 4, "apple": 2, "orange": 1.5, "pear": 3 }
>>> [myPair for myPair in prices.items()]
[('orange', 1.5), ('apple', 2), ('pear', 3), ('banana', 4)]

>>> [fruit+' have a price of '+str(price) for (fruit,price) in prices.items()]
['orange have a price of 1.5', 'apple have a price of 2', 'pear have a price of 3', 'banana have a price of 4']

Test presence of a pair otherwise default value

>>> dlist = [{'Bilbo':'Ian','Frodo':'Elijah'},{'Bilbo':'Martin','Thorin':'Richard'}]
>>> k = 'Frodo'
>>> [ i[k] if k in i else 'NOT PRESENT' for i in dlist]
['Elijah', 'NOT PRESENT']

Documentation / Reference