Dictionaries

 thisdict = {

  "brand": "Ford",
  "model": "Mustang",
  "year": 1964
}

Dictionary

Dictionaries are used to store data values in key:value pairs.

A dictionary is a collection which is ordered*, changeable and do not allow duplicates.

Dictionaries are written with curly brackets, and have keys and values:

thisdict = {
  "brand": "Ford",
  "model": "Mustang",
  "year": 1964
}
print(thisdict)

Dictionary Items

Dictionary items are ordered, changeable, and does not allow duplicates.

Dictionary items are presented in key:value pairs, and can be referred to by using the key name.

thisdict = {
  "brand": "Ford",
  "model": "Mustang",
  "year": 1964
}
print(thisdict["brand"])

Ordered or Unordered?

When we say that dictionaries are ordered, it means that the items have a defined order, and that order will not change.

Unordered means that the items does not have a defined order, you cannot refer to an item by using an index.

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Changeable

Dictionaries are changeable, meaning that we can change, add or remove items after the dictionary has been created.

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Duplicates Not Allowed

Dictionaries cannot have two items with the same key:

Duplicate values will overwrite existing values:

thisdict = {
  "brand": "Ford",
  "model": "Mustang",
  "year": 1964,
  "year": 2020
}
print(thisdict)

Dictionary Length

To determine how many items a dictionary has, use the len() function:

print(len(thisdict))

Dictionary Items - Data Types

The values in dictionary items can be of any data type:

thisdict = {
  "brand": "Ford",
  "electric": False,
  "year": 1964,
  "colors": ["red", "white", "blue"]
}

type()

From Python's perspective, dictionaries are defined as objects with the data type 'dict':

thisdict = {
  "brand": "Ford",
  "model": "Mustang",
  "year": 1964
}
print(type(thisdict))

The dict() Constructor

It is also possible to use the dict() constructor to make a dictionary.

thisdict = dict(name = "John", age = 36, country = "Norway")
print(thisdict)

Python Collections (Arrays)

There are four collection data types in the Python programming language:

• List is a collection which is ordered and changeable. Allows duplicate members.
• Tuple is a collection which is ordered and unchangeable. Allows duplicate members.
• Set is a collection which is unordered, unchangeable*, and unindexed. No duplicate members.
• Dictionary is a collection which is ordered** and changeable. No duplicate members.

<class 'dict'>