Dictionaries

Juliette Woodrow
Code in Place 2023

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 Learning Goals

1. Learning about dictionaries

2. Building programs using dictionaries

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 Dictionaries

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 What are Dictionaries?

• Dictionaries associate a key with a value

– Key is a unique identifier
– Value is something we associate with that key
• Examples in the real world:
– Phonebook
• Keys: names
• Values: phone numbers
– Dictionary
• Keys: words
• Values: word definitions
– Social Media Platforms
• Keys: usernames
• Values: Information like account details, posts, and followers

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 Dictionaries in Python

• Creating dictionaries
– Dictionary start/end with braces
– Key:Value pairs separated by colon
– Each pair is separated by a comma
ages = {'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}
squares = {2: 4, 3: 9, 4: 16, 5: 25}
phone = {'Pat': '555-1212', 'Jenny': '867-5309'}
empty_dict = {}

ages 'Chris' 32
'Juliette' 24
'Mehran' 50
Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University
Accessing Elements of Dictionary
• Consider the following dictionary:
ages = {'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}

• Like a set of variables that are indexed by keys

ages 'Chris' 32
'Juliette' 24
'Mehran' 50

• Use key to access associated value:

ages['Chris'] is 32
ages['Mehran'] is 50

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

Accessing Elements of Dictionary
• Consider the following dictionary:
ages = {'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}

• Like a set of variables that are indexed by keys

ages 'Chris' 32
'Juliette' 24
'Mehran' 18

• Use key to access associated value:

ages['Chris'] is 32
ages['Mehran'] is 50
• Can set values like regular variable:
ages['Mehran'] = 18

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

Accessing Elements of Dictionary
• Consider the following dictionary:
ages = {'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}

• Like a set of variables that are indexed by keys

ages 'Chris' 32
'Juliette' 24
'Mehran' 21

• Use key to access associated value:

ages['Chris'] is 32
ages['Mehran'] is 50
• Can set values like regular variable:
ages['Mehran'] = 18
ages['Mehran'] += 3
Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University
Accessing Elements of Dictionary
• Consider the following dictionary:
ages = {'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}

• Like a set of variables that are indexed by keys

ages 'Chris' 32
'Juliette' 24
'Mehran' 21

• Good and bad times with accessing pairs:

>>> chris_age = ages['Chris']
>>> chris_age
32
>>> karels_age = ages['Karel the Robot']
KeyError: 'Karel the Robot'
Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University
Accessing Elements of Dictionary
• Consider the following dictionary:
ages = {'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}

• Like a set of variables that are indexed by keys

ages 'Chris' 32
'Juliette' 24
'Mehran' 21

• Checking membership
>>> 'Mehran' in ages
True
>>> 'Karel the Robot' not in ages
True

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 Adding Elements to Dictionary
• Can add pairs to a dictionary:
phone = {}
phone Empty dictionary

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 Adding Elements to Dictionary
• Can add pairs to a dictionary:
phone = {}
phone 'Pat' '555-1212'

phone['Pat'] = '555-1212'

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 Adding Elements to Dictionary
• Can add pairs to a dictionary:
phone = {}
phone 'Pat' '555-1212'
'Jenny' '867-5309'

phone['Pat'] = '555-1212'
phone['Jenny'] = '867-5309'

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 Adding Elements to Dictionary
• Can add pairs to a dictionary:
phone = {}
phone 'Pat' None
'Jenny' '867-5309'

phone['Pat'] = '555-1212'
phone['Jenny'] = '867-5309'
phone['Pat'] = None

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 Adding Elements to Dictionary
• Can add pairs to a dictionary:
phone = {}
phone 'Pat' '867-5309'
'Jenny' '867-5309'

phone['Pat'] = '555-1212'
phone['Jenny'] = '867-5309'
phone['Pat'] = None
phone['Pat'] = '867-5309'

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 Looping Over Dictionary
ages = {'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}
• Can also loop over a dictionary using for-each loop just
using name of dictionary:
for key in ages:
value = ages[key]
print(str(key) + ' -> ' + str(value))

Terminal:
Chris -> 32
Juliette -> 24
Mehran -> 50

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 Lets Play!

“Mehran Sahami, as a pixar character, reading a dictionary”

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University
 Lets Play!

“Professor Mehran Sahami, as a pixar character, reading a dictionary”

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University
 List
index -> value

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 Dictionary
key -> value

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 List Dictionary
my_list = [‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’] my_dict = {
‘France’: ’+33’,
‘Japan’: ’+81’,
‘Brazil’:’+55’
]

print(my_list[1]) print(my_list[‘France’])

for i in range(len(my_list)): for key in my_dict:

value = my_list[i] value = my_dict[key]
print(i, value) print(key, value)

my_list my_dict

a b c +33 +81 +55

0 1 2 ‘France’ ‘Japan’ ‘Brazil’
indices keysUniversity
Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford
 List Dictionary
my_list = [ my_dict = {
‘a’, ‘France’: ’+33’,
‘b’, ‘Japan’: ’+81’,
‘c’ ‘Brazil’:’+55’
] ]

print(my_list[1]) print(my_list[‘France’])

for i in range(len(my_list)): for key in my_dict:

value = my_list[i] value = my_dict[key]
print(i, value) print(key, value)

my_list my_dict

a b c +33 +81 +55

0 1 2 ‘France’ ‘Japan’ ‘Brazil’
indices keysUniversity
Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford
 List Dictionary
my_list = [‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’] my_dict = {
‘France’: ’+33’,
‘Japan’: ’+81’,
‘Brazil’:’+55’
]

print(my_list[1]) print(my_list[‘France’])

for i in range(len(my_list)): for key in my_dict:

value = my_list[i] value = my_dict[key]
print(i, value) print(key, value)

my_list my_dict

a b c +33 +81 +55

0 1 2 ‘France’ ‘Japan’ ‘Brazil’
indices keysUniversity
Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford
 List Dictionary
my_list = [‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’] my_dict = {
‘France’: ’+33’,
‘Japan’: ’+81’,
‘Brazil’:’+55’
]

print(my_list[1]) print(my_list[‘France’])

for i in range(len(my_list)): for key in my_dict:

value = my_list[i] value = my_dict[key]
print(i, value) print(key, value)

my_list my_dict

a b c +33 +81 +55

0 1 2 ‘France’ ‘Japan’ ‘Brazil’
indices keysUniversity
Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford
 List Dictionary
my_list = [‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’] my_dict = {
‘France’: ’+33’,
‘Japan’: ’+81’,
‘Brazil’:’+55’
]

print(my_list[1]) print(my_list[‘France’])

for i in range(len(my_list)): for key in my_dict:

value = my_list[i] value = my_dict[key]
print(i, value) print(key, value)

my_list my_dict

a b c +33 +81 +55

0 1 2 ‘France’ ‘Japan’ ‘Brazil’
indices keysUniversity
Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford
 List Dictionary
my_list = [‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’] my_dict = {
‘France’: ’+33’,
‘Japan’: ’+81’,
‘Brazil’:’+55’
]

print(my_list[1]) print(my_list[‘France’])

for i in range(len(my_list)): for key in my_dict:

value = my_list[i] value = my_dict[key]
print(i, value) print(key, value)

my_list my_dict

a b c +33 +81 +55

0 1 2 ‘France’ ‘Japan’ ‘Brazil’
indices keysUniversity
Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford
 More Dictionary Fun! (Part 1)
ages = {'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}
• Function: dict.keys()
– Returns something similar to a range of the keys in dictionary
– Can use that to loop over all keys in a dictionary:
for key in ages.keys():
print(str(key) + " -> " + str(ages[key]))
Terminal:
Chris -> 32
Juliette -> 24
Mehran -> 50

– Can turn keys() into a list, using the list function

>>> list(ages.keys())
['Chris', 'Juliette', 'Mehran']

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 More Dictionary Fun! (Part 2)
ages = {'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}
• Function: dict.values()
– Returns something similar to a range of the values in dictionary
– Can use that to loop over all keys in a dictionary:
for value in ages.values():
print(value)
Terminal:
32
24
50

– Can turn values() into a list, using the list function

>>> list(ages.values())
[32, 24, 50]

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 More Dictionary Fun! (Part 3)
ages = {'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}
• Function: dict.items()
– Returns
– Can use that to loop over all key value pairs in a dictionary:
for key, value in ages.items():
print(f"{key}, {value}")
Terminal:
Chris, 32
Juliette, 24
Mehran, 50

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 More Dictionary Fun! (Part 4/5)
ages = {'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}
• Function: dict.pop(key)
– Removes key/value pair with the given key. Returns value from
that key/value pair.
>>> ages
>>> {'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}
>>> ages.pop('Mehran')
50
>>> ages
{'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24}
• Function: dict.clear()
– Removes all key/value pairs in the dictionary.
>>> ages.clear()
>>> ages
{}
Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University
 Functions You Can Apply
ages = {'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}
• Function: len(dict)
– Returns number of key/value pairs in the dictionary
>>> ages
{'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}
>>> len(ages)
3
• Function: del dict[key]
– Removes key/value pairs in the dictionary.
– Similar to pop, but doesn't return anything.
>>> ages
{'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24, 'Mehran': 50}
>>> del ages['Mehran']
>>> ages
{'Chris': 32, 'Juliette’: 24}
Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University
 Example:
count_nums.py

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 Example:
phonebook.py

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University

 Learning Goals

1. Learning about dictionaries

2. Building programs using dictionaries

Piech + Sahami, CS106A, Stanford University