Cheatsheets / Learn Python 3

Dictionaries

Accessing and writing data in a Python dictionary

Values in a Python dictionary can be accessed by placing the key within square my_dictionary = {"song": "Estranged", "artist": "Guns N'
brackets next to the dictionary. Values can be written by placing key within square
Roses"}
brackets next to the dictionary and using the assignment operator ( = ). If the key
already exists, the old value will be overwritten. Attempting to access a value with a key print(my_dictionary["song"])
that does not exist will cause a KeyError . my_dictionary["song"] = "Paradise City"
To illustrate this review card, the second line of the example code block shows the way
to access the value using the key "song" . The third line of the code block
overwrites the value that corresponds to the key "song" .

Syntax of the Python dictionary

The syntax for a Python dictionary begins with the left curly brace ( { ), ends with the roaster = {"q1": "Ashley", "q2": "Dolly"}
right curly brace ( } ), and contains zero or more key : value items separated
by commas ( , ). The key is separated from the value by a colon ( : ).
Merging dictionaries with the .update() method in Python

Given two dictionaries that need to be combined, Python makes this easy with the dict1 = {'color': 'blue', 'shape': 'circle'}
.update() function.
dict2 = {'color': 'red', 'number': 42}
For dict1.update(dict2) , the key-value pairs of dict2 will be written
into the dict1 dictionary.
For keys in both dict1 and dict2 , the value in dict1 will be overwritten by dict1.update(dict2)
the corresponding value in dict2 .

# dict1 is now {'color': 'red', 'shape': 'circle', 'number':

Dictionary value types

Python allows the values in a dictionary to be any type – string, integer, a list, another dictionary = {
dictionary, boolean, etc. However, keys must always be an immutable data type, such
as strings, numbers, or tuples.
1: 'hello',
In the example code block, you can see that the keys are strings or numbers (int or 'two': True,
float). The values, on the other hand, are many varied data types. '3': [1, 2, 3],
'Four': {'fun': 'addition'},
5.0: 5.5
}

Python dictionaries

A python dictionary is an unordered collection of items. It contains data as a set of key: my_dictionary = {1: "L.A. Lakers", 2: "Houston Rockets"}
value pairs.
Dictionary Key-Value Methods

When trying to look at the information in a Python dictionary, there are multiple ex_dict = {"a": "anteater", "b": "bumblebee", "c":
methods that return objects that contain the dictionary keys and values.
"cheetah"}
.keys() returns the keys through a dict_keys object.
.values() returns the values through a dict_values object.
.items() returns both the keys and values through a dict_items ex_dict.keys()
object. # dict_keys(["a","b","c"])

ex_dict.values()
# dict_values(["anteater", "bumblebee", "cheetah"])

ex_dict.items()
# dict_items([("a","anteater"),("b","bumblebee"),
("c","cheetah")])
get() Method for Dictionary

Python provides a .get() method to access a dictionary value if it exists. # without default
This method takes the key as the first argument and an optional default value as the
{"name": "Victor"}.get("name")
second argument, and it returns the value for the specified key if key is in the
# returns "Victor"
dictionary. If the second argument is not specified and key is not found then
None is returned.
{"name": "Victor"}.get("nickname")
# returns None

# with default
{"name": "Victor"}.get("nickname", "nickname is not a key")
# returns "nickname is not a key"

The .pop() Method for Dictionaries in Python

Python dictionaries can remove key-value pairs with the .pop() method. The famous_museums = {'Washington': 'Smithsonian Institution',
method takes a key as an argument and removes it from the dictionary. At the same
'Paris': 'Le Louvre', 'Athens': 'The Acropolis Museum'}
time, it also returns the value that it removes from the dictionary.
famous_museums.pop('Athens')
print(famous_museums) # {'Washington': 'Smithsonian
Institution', 'Paris': 'Le Louvre'}

Print Share