Hacker Girl
Posted on by Glenn

Python: Dictionaries

  1. Introduction to Python
  2. Python: Choosing a Text Editor or IDE
  3. Python: Hello World
  4. Python: Variables, Strings and Numbers
  5. Python: Variable Naming
  6. Python: Math, Familiar
  7. Python: Math, Less Familiar
  8. Python: Mathematical Order of Operations
  9. Python: Introducing PEP 8
  10. Python: Text Concatenation
  11. Python: if Statements and Comparison Operators
  12. Python: else and elif statements
  13. Python: Testing Multiple Conditions
  14. Python: Testing Sets of Conditions
  15. Python: Nested if Statements
  16. Python: Lists
  17. Python: Adding To and Changing Lists
  18. Python: Lists: Take a Slice, Delete Elements, Popping Elements
  19. Python: Tuples
  20. Python: for Loops
  21. Python: Nested for Loops
  22. Python: Capturing and Formatting User Input
  23. Python: Dictionaries
  24. Python: Functions
  25. Python: While Loops
  26. Python: Creating and Using Classes
  27. Python: Data Files
  28. Python: Modules
  29. Python: CSV Files
  30. Python: JSON Files
  31. Python: Errors and Exception Handling
  32. Python: Using Pexpect
  33. Python : Using Pexpect : ftpTestOffload.sh
  34. Python : Using Pexpect: ftpTest.py
  35. Python: DCL Conversion to Python

Go to Chapter 25 in A Smarter Way.

Python dictionaries are lists of key/value pairs:

name: Bill
address: 123 Main St.
telephone: 222-333-4444

Go to Chapter 26 in A Smarter Way.

Remember that key: value syntax. You’ll use it to create dictionaries:

best_friend = {"name": "bill", 
               "address": "1232 main st.", 
               "telephone": "222-333-4444"}

Note those curly braces: { }.

Go to Chapter 27 in A Smarter Way.

In a dictionary, you extract an element by naming its key:

best_friend_name = best_friend["name"]
print(best_friend_name)

Notice that we’re getting the value we want by using an index (that’s why we use square brackets), but the index isn’t a number, it’s a string (that’s why it’s in quotes).

Go to Chapter 28 in A Smarter Way.

Both keys and values can be numbers, if needed. Simply don’t place them in quotes:

cat_ranking = {1: "Ginger", 
               2: "Sven", 
               3: "Betty"}

Go to Chapter 29 in A Smarter Way.

To add items to a dictionary:

best_friend["ranking"] = 1

Go to Chapter 30 in A Smarter Way.

To remove items:

del best_friend["ranking"]

Again, note that we’re using square brackets, because we’re getting the value by using its key (index).

To change an item:

best_friend["address"] = "456 second st."

Go to Chapter 31 in A Smarter Way.

To loop through values:

for best_friend_info in best_friend.values():
    print(best_friend_info)

Note how we use best_friend.values( ).

Go to Chapter 32 in A Smarter Way.

To loop through keys:

for each_key in best_friend.keys( ):
    print(each_key)

Again, note how we access the keys with best_friend.keys( ).

Go to Chapter 33 in A Smarter Way.

To loop through both keys and values:

for each_key, each_value in best_friend.items( ):
    print(each_key + ": " + each_value

This time we use items( ) instead of keys( ) or values( ).

Create and access multi-level dictionaries:

#!/usr/bin/python3
# Author: Armando S. Romero III
# used by permission
patients = {}
patients['PHP'] = {}
patients['MCD'] = {}

print(patients)

pat1 = {'name' : 'Amos' , 'ph' : '505-233-1234' }
pat2 = {'name' : 'Andy' , 'ph' : '505-233-4321' }
pat3 = {'name' : 'Armand' , 'ph' : '505-455-2222' }

patients['PHP'][10000] = pat2
patients['MCD'][10003] = pat3
patients['PHP'][10002] = pat1

print(patients)

Exercises

See http://www.asmarterwaytolearn.com/python/25.html
and continue through chapter 33.

  1. Copy the multi-level dictionary above, and use it as a start to create a script that prints formatted output of this information, along the lines of a patients information report.