IP CBSE Syllabus
Dictionary: concept of key-value pair, creating, initializing, traversing, updating and
deleting elements, dictionary methods and built-in functions: len(), dict(), keys(),
values(), items(), get(), update(), clear(), del()
• Python dictionary is an unordered collection of items.
• A dictionary has a key : value pair.
• A dictionary doesn’t have an index like in Lists. In Lists, we used to remember
the index, in Dictionary we deal with key. There is no index.
• We use curly bracket for dictionaries and in a dictionary, key and values are
stored in pairs.
Let us see an example,
Key Value
"ELENA JOSE" 450
Marks "PARAS GUPTA" 467
"JOEFFIN JOSEPH" 480
Here,
- Key PARAS GUPTA with a value 467
- Key ELENA JOSE with a value 450
- Key JOEFFIN JOSEPH with a value 480
Creating Dictionary
A dictionary can be created in three different ways :
Dictionary using literal notation.
Method 1:
To declare a dictionary, the syntax is:
directory-name = {key : value, key : value,.............. , keyN : valueN}
➢ Dictionary is listed in curly brackets, inside these curly brackets ( { } ), keys and
values are declared. You remember List has square brackets.
➢ Each key is separated from its value by a colon (:) while each element is
separated by commas.
➢ The keys in a dictionary must be immutable type like strings or numbers.
➢ Dictionary keys are case sensitive.
➢ The values in the dictionary can be of any type.
EXAMPLE 1:
For example, let us create and print the Marks dictionary:
>>> Marks = {"ELENA JOSE" : 450, "PARAS GUPTA" : 467, "JOEFFIN JOSEPH" : 480}
Here ELENA JOSE is the key and its value is 450, PARAS GUPTA is the key and its value is 467.
>>> print (Marks) #this will print Dictionary named Marks
Output:
{'ELENA JOSE': 450, 'PARAS GUPTA': 467, 'JOEFFIN JOSEPH': 480}
EXAMPLE 2:
teachers={“BHAWNA”:”Math”, “HARMEET ”:”Physics”, ”MEENAL”:”Chemistry”}
# in the above example, key is also in quotes and value is also in quotes.
EXAMPLE 3:
Similarly, let us create another dictionary called Student with following key : value pairs:
>>> Student = { "Name" : "Surbhi Gupta",
"Rollno" : 11,
"Address" : "F444 - MIG Flat, Sec-7, Rohini",
"Phone" : "7286798500"
}
>>> print (Student)
{'Name': 'Surbhi Gupta' , 'Rollno': 11 , 'Address': 'F2/27 - MIG Flat, Sec-7, Rohini' , 'Phone':
'7286798500'}
Example 4 : You make a dictionary of your friends names and phone numbers.
Friends name will be a key, phone number will be a value.
Method 2 of Creating Dictionary
2. Dictionary using dict() function.
The dict( ) function is used to create a new dictionary with no items. For
example,
>>> weekdays = dict(Sunday=0, Monday=1, Tuesday=2, Wednesday=3)
(weekdays is the name of dictionary here)
>>> print (weekdays)
Output:
{'Sunday': 0, 'Monday': 1, 'Tuesday': 2, 'Wednesday': 3}
(Python has automatically made it as a dictionary)
Creating empty dictionary using {}.
An empty dictionary can be created using {}.
Accessing Elements of Dictionary
teachers={“BHAWNA”:”Math”, “HARMEET ”:”Physics”, ”MEENAL”:”Chemistry”}
>>>teachers[“BHAWNA”]
“Math” will be the output
print(teachers[“HARMEET”])
Will print Physics
Traversing the Dictionary
• We use for loop to traverse the dictionary
Example 1:
teachers={"BHAWNA":"Math", "HARMEET":"Physics", "MEENAL":"Chemistry"}
for i in teachers:
print(i, teachers[i])
Output:
BHAWNA Math
HARMEET Physics
MEENAL Chemistry
Traversing the following:
Marks = {"ELENA JOSE" : 450, "PARAS GUPTA" : 467, "JOEFFIN JOSEPH" : 480}
for i in Marks:
print(i, Marks[i])
Output:
ELENA JOSE : 450
PARAS GUPTA: 467,
JOEFFIN JOSEPH : 480
Using keys() and values() function
• keys() function displays only the keys of the dictionary
• values() function displays only the values of the dictionary
teachers={"BHAWNA":"Math", "HARMEET":"Physics", "MEENAL":"Chemistry"}
print(teachers.keys())
print(teachers.values())
Output:
dict_keys(['BHAWNA', 'HARMEET', 'MEENAL'])
dict_values(['Math', 'Physics', 'Chemistry'])
Points to Remember about Dictionary
1) Dictionary is not an ordered set. Ordering is like in the case of indexes-
0,1,2 and so on. Like in Example above Elena Jose, Paras Gupta have no
sequence.
2) Dictionary is not a sequence like Lists, tuple
3) Dictionary has pairs- keys, values
4) Keys have to be immutable. Strings and number
5) Keys have to be unique? (Think why) Because keys are used to identify
values. In teachers[“BHAWNA”], “BHAWNA” is unique as it has to return
a value : Math
teachers={"BHAWNA":"Math", "BHAWNA":"Phy",
"MEENAL":"Chemistry"}
# This is erroneous because Key BHAWNA is NOT unique.
print(teachers)
# It will consider only this as dictionary :
{'BHAWNA': 'Phy', 'MEENAL': 'Chemistry'}
6) Values can be same. Example two teachers can have the same value :
Math
Example : BHAWNA and HARMEET both values Math here:
teachers={"BHAWNA":"Math", "HARMEET":"Math", "MEENAL":"Chemistry"}
print(teachers)
Adding pair in a Dictionary
teachers={"BHAWNA":"Math", "HARMEET":"Physics", "MEENAL":"Chemistry"}
teachers["NANCY SEHGAL"]= "Comp Sc"
print(teachers)
Output:
{'BHAWNA': 'Math', 'HARMEET': 'Physics', 'MEENAL': 'Chemistry', 'NANCY
SEHGAL': 'Comp Sc'}
In the Dictionary named Marks , we will add item:
Marks["Gagan Singh"]= 650
Now Dictionary will be like this :
Marks = {"ELENA JOSE" : 450, "PARAS GUPTA" : 467, "JOEFFIN JOSEPH" : 480, “Gagan Singh”:650}
• So we have noted that as Dictionaries are Mutable, Pairs can be added to it.
Changing values in a Dictionary
teachers["BHAWNA"]= "Math Comp Sc"
Now print(teachers) will print
{'BHAWNA': 'Math Comp Sc', 'HARMEET': 'Physics', 'MEENAL': 'Chemistry',
'NANCY SEHGAL': 'Comp Sc'}
• So we have noted that as Dictionaries are Mutable, Value can be changed for a pair.
Deleting elements in a Dictionary
• We use del fuction with key to delete an item.
teachers={"BHAWNA":"Math", "HARMEET":"Physics", "MEENAL":"Chemistry"}
del(teachers["MEENAL"])
print(teachers)
(Meenal:Chemistry pair is deleted
Output:
{'BHAWNA': 'Math', 'HARMEET': 'Physics'}
Note : As we write del and then (, same way we write len function :
print(len(teachers))
• We can also use pop function with key to delete an item.
teachers={"BHAWNA":"Math", "HARMEET":"Physics", "MEENAL":"Chemistry"}
teachers.pop("MEENAL")
print(teachers)
Functions used in Dictionary
teachers={"BHAWNA":"Math", "HARMEET":"Physics", "MEENAL":"Chemistry"}
Function/Method Usage Output
len(): print(len(teachers)) 3
Returns number
of pairs.
get(): print(teachers.get("HARMEET")) Physics
Returns the
value of the
specified key
get(): print(teachers.get("Seema")) None
if we write a
key that has no
value, none is
returned.
keys(): print(teachers.keys()) dict_keys(['BHAWNA',
Returns a list 'HARMEET', 'MEENAL'])
containing the
dictionary's keys
values(): print(teachers.values()) dict_values(['Math',
'Physics',
Returns a list of 'Chemistry'])
all the values in
the dictionary
copy() x will be dictionary
same as teachers
Creates a copy x = teachers.copy()
of dictionary
print(x)
clear(): {}
x.clear()
Removes all
elements
pop() teachers.pop(“HARMEET”) {"BHAWNA":"Math", "ME
removes the ENAL":"Chemistry"}
pair with
HARMEET as
key
dict_items([('BHAWNA'
items() teachers={"BHAWNA":"Math", , 'Math'),
"HARMEET":"Physics", ('HARMEET',
prints keys and "MEENAL":"Chemistry"} 'Physics'),
values in ('MEENAL',
dictionary in a print(teachers.items()) 'Chemistry')])
list
update() teachers={"BHAWNA":"Math", {'BHAWNA': 'Math',
"HARMEET":"Physics", 'MEENAL':
it adds the pair "MEENAL":"Chemistry"} 'Chemistry', 'Amita':
in the 'English'}
dictionary {'MEENAL':
teachers.update({"Amita":"English"}) 'Chemistry', 'Amita':
Observe that 'English'}
pair is supplied
in the form of
dictionary.
Difference between del and pop to delete a pair :
teachers={"BHAWNA":"Math", "HARMEET":"Physics",
"MEENAL":"Chemistry"}
teachers={"BHAWNA":"Math", "HARMEET":"Physics", "MEENAL":"Chemistry"}
print("using pop")
x=teachers.pop("HARMEET") # x will be assigned Physics
y=del(teachers["BHAWNA"]) # will give Error
print(y)
• Use d.pop if you want to capture the removed value, like
item = teachers .pop("Harmeet").
• Use del if you simply want to delete an item from a dictionary.
Answer the following:
Define:
(i) A dictionary with 5 fruit names as keys and their respective prices as values.
Ans: {'banana':70,'mango':60,'apple':120,'peach':120,'grapes':100)
(ii) A dictionary with 3 student names as keys and their aggregate marks
percentages as respective values.
Ans : {'Amar’:80, 'Akbar':78.5, 'Anthony':80.6}
(iii) A dictionary named student with the following elements:
a. admno:admission number of the student (string)
b. name:name of the student (string)
c. dob: Date of birth of the student (string)
d. class: Class of the student (integer)
Ans: Student={'admno': '12332', 'name': 'Rohan', 'dob': '12/10/2006', 'class':8}
(iv) A dictionary named item with the following elements:
a. code:item code(integer)
b. name:name of the item (string)
c. price: price of the item (floating point)
d. qty: balance quantity of the item in stock (floating point)
Ans: item={'code':233, 'name': 'Soap', 'price': 28.50, 'qty':8.0}
(v) A dictionary named mobile with the following elements:
a. make:Name of the brand (Apple, Samsung, etc.)
b. model: Model name (iPhone X, Note 9, etc.)
c. year: Year of launch (integer)
d. price: Price in INR (integer)
Ans: mobile={'make':233, 'model': ' iPhone 11 Pro', 'year':2019,'price':115000}
(vi) A dictionary Eng2Lang with 5 elements, where key is an English language word
and value is the corresponding word in your mother tongue.
(vii) A dictionary to store the vertices of a polygon. Each element of the dictionary
should have a vertex name as the key and a tuple to store the coordinates of
the vertex as its value. For example, an element of the dictionary may be
‘A’:(2,3)
2. Consider dictionary D given below:
D={'U1':'Programming', 'U2':'Data structures', 'U3':'Files',
'U4':'RDBMS', 'U5':'Networks'}
With reference to D, state True/False for each of the following expressions:
(i) 'U2' in D (ii) U2 in D (iii) 'Programming' in D
(iv) Programming in 'D' (v) 'U3' not in D (vi) 'Files' not in D
.
(i) True (ii) False (iii) (iv) False
False
(v) (vi) True
False
Q) Consider dictionary weight given below and write the output :
weight= {'A1':8,'A2':7,'B1':6,'B2':5,'C1':4,'C2':3,'D1':2,'D2':1,'E':0}
(i) for k in weight:
print(k,"-",weight[k])
(ii) for k in weight.keys():
print(k,"-",weight[k])
(iii) for k in weight.values():
print(k, end=' ')
(iv) for k,v in weight.items():
print(k,"-",v)
Ans:
(i) A1 - 8 (ii) A1 - 8 (iii) 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 (iv) A1 - 8
A2 - 7 A2 - 7 A2 - 7
B1 - 6 B1 - 6 B1 - 6
B2 - 5 B2 - 5 B2 - 5
C1 - 4 C1 - 4 C1 - 4
C2 - 3 C2 - 3 C2 - 3
D1 - 2 D1 - 2 D1 - 2
D2 - 1 D2 - 1 D2 - 1
E - 0 E - 0 E – 0
Programs
Write a program to accept a key from the user and remove that key from the dictionary if
present.
Solution :
d1 = {1 : 25, 2 : 90, 3 : 50}
k=int(input(“Enter any key”))
if k in d1:
d1.pop(k)
print(d1)# dictionary will be displayed without the value that is deleted
else:
print(“Key not found”)
Q. Write a program to count the number of elements(pairs) in a
dictionary.
Solution:
d1={1:”Aman”,2:”Suman”,3:”Aman”,4:”Kranti”,5:”Suman”}
print(len(d1))
Q3. Accept a key from the user and modify it’s value.
Solution:
d1={1:”Aman”,2:”Suman”,3:”Aman”,4:”Kranti”,5:”Suman”}
k=int(input(“Enter the key”))
v=input(“Enter the modified value”)
d1[k]=v
print(d1)
