# Dictionaries store mappings
empty_dict = {}
# Here is a prefilled dictionary
filled_dict = {"one": 1, "two": 2, "three": 3}
# Note keys for dictionaries have to be immutable types. This is to ensure that
# the key can be converted to a constant hash value for quick look-ups.
# Immutable types include ints, floats, strings, tuples.
invalid_dict = {[1,2,3]: "123"} # => Raises a TypeError: unhashable type: 'list'
valid_dict = {(1,2,3):[1,2,3]} # Values can be of any type, however.
# Look up values with []
filled_dict["one"] # => 1
# Get all keys as an iterable with "keys()". We need to wrap the call in list()
# to turn it into a list. We'll talk about those later. Note - Dictionary key
# ordering is not guaranteed. Your results might not match this exactly.
list(filled_dict.keys()) # => ["three", "two", "one"]
# Get all values as an iterable with "values()". Once again we need to wrap it
# in list() to get it out of the iterable. Note - Same as above regarding key
# ordering.
list(filled_dict.values()) # => [3, 2, 1]
# Check for existence of keys in a dictionary with "in"
"one" in filled_dict # => True
1 in filled_dict # => False
# Looking up a non-existing key is a KeyError
filled_dict["four"] # KeyError
# Use "get()" method to avoid the KeyError
filled_dict.get("one") # => 1
filled_dict.get("four") # => None
# The get method supports a default argument when the value is missing
filled_dict.get("one", 4) # => 1
filled_dict.get("four", 4) # => 4
# "setdefault()" inserts into a dictionary only if the given key isn't present
filled_dict.setdefault("five", 5) # filled_dict["five"] is set to 5
filled_dict.setdefault("five", 6) # filled_dict["five"] is still 5
# Adding to a dictionary
filled_dict.update({"four":4}) # => {"one": 1, "two": 2, "three": 3, "four": 4}
#filled_dict["four"] = 4 #another way to add to dict
# Remove keys from a dictionary with del
del filled_dict["one"] # Removes the key "one" from filled dict
# From Python 3.5 you can also use the additional unpacking options
{'a': 1, **{'b': 2}} # => {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
{'a': 1, **{'a': 2}} # => {'a': 2} |