07

Day 7: Dictionaries

Chapter 7 • Beginner

35 min

Dictionaries are used to store data values in key:value pairs. A dictionary is a collection which is ordered, changeable and does not allow duplicates.

What are Dictionaries?

Dictionaries in Python are like real-world dictionaries. You look up a word (key) to find its meaning (value). In programming, you use keys to find values.

Dictionary Properties:

  • Ordered (as of Python 3.7)
  • Changeable (can add, remove, modify items)
  • No duplicate keys
  • Indexed by keys (not by position)

Dictionary Methods:

  • get() - Get value by key
  • keys() - Get all keys
  • values() - Get all values
  • items() - Get all key-value pairs
  • update() - Update dictionary
  • pop() - Remove item by key
  • clear() - Remove all items
  • copy() - Copy dictionary

Hands-on Examples

Dictionary Operations

# Create dictionary
person = {
    "name": "Elena",
    "age": 30,
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "skills": ["Python", "JavaScript", "SQL"]
}

print("Person:", person)
print("Name:", person["name"])
print("Age:", person.get("age"))

# Add new key-value pair
person["email"] = "[email protected]"
print("After adding email:", person)

# Update existing value
person["age"] = 31
print("After updating age:", person)

# Dictionary methods
print("Keys:", list(person.keys()))
print("Values:", list(person.values()))
print("Items:", list(person.items()))

# Remove item
removed_skill = person["skills"].pop()
print("Removed skill:", removed_skill)
print("Updated skills:", person["skills"])

Dictionaries are mutable and allow you to store key-value pairs efficiently.