Overview
One of the nice features of scripting languages such as Python is what is called an associative array. An associative array differs from a “normal” array in one major respect: rather than being indexed numerically (i.e. 0, 1, 2, 3, …), it is indexed by a key, or an English-like word. Python has something very similar to an associative array in the Dictionary object. The Python Dictionary object provides a key:value indexing facility. Note that dictionaries are unordered - since the values in the dictionary are indexed by keys, they are not held in any particular order, unlike a list, where each item can be located by its position in the list.
The Dictionary object is used to hold a set of data values in the form of (key, item) pairs. A dictionary is sometimes called an associative array because it associates a key with an item. The keys behave in a way similar to indices in an array, except that array indices are numeric and keys are arbitrary strings. Each key in a single Dictionary object must be unique.
Dictionaries are used when some items need to be stored and recovered by name. For example, a dictionary can hold all of the environment variables defined by the system or all the values associated with a registry key. While this can be much faster than iterating a list looking for a match, a dictionary can only store one item for each key value. That is, dictionary keys must all be unique.
Creating Dictionaries
To create an empty dictionary, use a pair of braces {}
room_empty = {}
To construct an instance of a dictionary object with key:item pairs filled in, use one of the following methods.
The dictionary room_num is created and filled in with each key:value pair, rather than as an empty dictionary. The key is a string or number, in the example below it is a person’s name, followed be a colon : as a separator from the associated value which can be any datatype, in this case an integer. Commas , seperate different key:value pairs in the dictionary:
room_num = {'john': 425, 'tom': 212, 'sally':325}
This dictionary is created from a list of tuples using the dict key word:
room_num1 = dict([('john', 425), ('tom', 212), ('sally', 325)])
The dictkeyword can be used in other ways to construct dictionaries.
Adding Values
To add a value to a Dictionary, specify the new key and set a value. Below, the code creates the dictionary room_num with two key:value pairs for John and Liz, then adds a third one for Isaac:
room_num = {'John': 425, 'Liz': 212}
room_num['Isaac'] = 345
print (room_num)
There is no limit to the number of values that can be added to a dictionary (within the bounds of physical memory).
Changing a value for any of the keys follows the same syntax. If the key already exists in the dictionary, the value is simply updated.
Removing Values
To remove a value from a dictionary, use the del method and specify the key to remove:
room_num = {'John': 425, 'Liz': 212, 'Isaac': 345}
del room_num['Isaac']
print (room_num)
Counting Values
Use the len() property to obtain a count of values in the dictionary.
room_num = {'John': 425, 'Liz': 212, 'Isaac': 345}
print len(room_num)
Get Values for Key
The in syntax returns True if the specified key exists within the dictionary. For example you may want to know if Tom is included in a dictionary, in this case False:
room_num = {'John': 425, 'Liz': 212, 'Isaac': 345}
var1 = 'Tom' in room_num
print ("Is Tom in the dictionary? " + str(var1))
or you may want to know if an Isaac is not in the dictionary. Below the answer will be also be False:
room_num = {'John': 425, 'Liz': 212, 'Isaac': 345}
var1 = 'Isaac' not in room_num
print ("Is Isaac not in room_num? " + str(var1))
Use the variable name and the key value in brackets [] to get the value associated with the key.
room_num = {'John': 425, 'Liz': 212, 'Isaac': 345}
var1 = room_num['Isaac']
print ("Isaac is in room number " + str(var1))
The .keys() and .values() methods return an array containing all the keys or values from the dictionary. For example:
room_num = {'john': 425, 'tom': 212}
print (room_num.keys())
print (room_num.values())
Looping through Dictionaries
Dictionaires can be used to control loops. In addition both the keys and values can be extracted at the same time using the .items() method:
room_num = {'john': 425, 'tom': 212, 'isaac': 345}
for k, v in room_num.items():
print (k + ' is in room ' + str(v))
You can also go through the dictionary backwards by using the reversed() method:
room_num = {'john': 425, 'tom': 212, 'isaac': 345}
for k, v in reversed(room_num.items()):
print (k + ' is in room ' + str(v))
Sorting Dictionaries
On occasion, it may be important to sort your dictionary. Dictionaries and be sorted by key name or by values
To sort a dictionary by key using the following sorted() function:
room_num = {'john': 425, 'tom': 212, 'isaac': 345}
print (sorted(room_num))
To sort by values use the sorted() method along with the .values() function:
room_num = {'john': 425, 'tom': 212, 'isaac': 345}
print (sorted(room_num.values()))
The Dictionary object is not there to replace list iteration, but there are times when it makes more sense to index your array using English-like terms as opposed to numerical values. It can be much faster to locate an object in a dictionary than in a list.
