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How do I add a key to an existing dictionary? It doesn't have an .add() method.
You create a new key/value pair on a dictionary by assigning a value to that key
d = {'key': 'value'}
print(d) # {'key': 'value'}
d['mynewkey'] = 'mynewvalue'
print(d) # {'key': 'value', 'mynewkey': 'mynewvalue'}
If the key doesn't exist, it's added and points to that value. If it exists, the current value it points to is overwritten.
I feel like consolidating info about Python dictionaries:
Creating an empty dictionary
data = {}
# OR
data = dict()
Creating a dictionary with initial values
data = {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
# OR
data = dict(a=1, b=2, c=3)
# OR
data = {k: v for k, v in (('a', 1), ('b',2), ('c',3))}
Inserting/Updating a single value
data['a'] = 1 # Updates if 'a' exists, else adds 'a'
# OR
data.update({'a': 1})
# OR
data.update(dict(a=1))
# OR
data.update(a=1)
Inserting/Updating multiple values
data.update({'c':3,'d':4}) # Updates 'c' and adds 'd'
Python 3.9+:
The update operator |= now works for dictionaries:
data |= {'c':3,'d':4}
Creating a merged dictionary without modifying originals
data3 = {}
data3.update(data) # Modifies data3, not data
data3.update(data2) # Modifies data3, not data2
Python 3.5+:
This uses a new feature called dictionary unpacking.
data = {**data1, **data2, **data3}
Python 3.9+:
The merge operator | now works for dictionaries:
data = data1 | {'c':3,'d':4}
Deleting items in dictionary
del data[key] # Removes specific element in a dictionary
data.pop(key) # Removes the key & returns the value
data.clear() # Clears entire dictionary
Check if a key is already in dictionary
key in data
Iterate through pairs in a dictionary
for key in data: # Iterates just through the keys, ignoring the values
for key, value in d.items(): # Iterates through the pairs
for key in d.keys(): # Iterates just through key, ignoring the values
for value in d.values(): # Iterates just through value, ignoring the keys
Create a dictionary from two lists
data = dict(zip(list_with_keys, list_with_values))
To add multiple keys simultaneously, use dict.update():
>>> x = {1:2}
>>> print(x)
{1: 2}
>>> d = {3:4, 5:6, 7:8}
>>> x.update(d)
>>> print(x)
{1: 2, 3: 4, 5: 6, 7: 8}
For adding a single key, the accepted answer has less computational overhead.
"Is it possible to add a key to a Python dictionary after it has been created? It doesn't seem to have an .add() method."
Yes it is possible, and it does have a method that implements this, but you don't want to use it directly.
To demonstrate how and how not to use it, let's create an empty dict with the dict literal, {}:
my_dict = {}
Best Practice 1: Subscript notation
To update this dict with a single new key and value, you can use the subscript notation (see Mappings here) that provides for item assignment:
my_dict['new key'] = 'new value'
my_dict is now:
{'new key': 'new value'}
Best Practice 2: The update method - 2 ways
We can also update the dict with multiple values efficiently as well using the update method. We may be unnecessarily creating an extra dict here, so we hope our dict has already been created and came from or was used for another purpose:
my_dict.update({'key 2': 'value 2', 'key 3': 'value 3'})
my_dict is now:
{'key 2': 'value 2', 'key 3': 'value 3', 'new key': 'new value'}
Another efficient way of doing this with the update method is with keyword arguments, but since they have to be legitimate python words, you can't have spaces or special symbols or start the name with a number, but many consider this a more readable way to create keys for a dict, and here we certainly avoid creating an extra unnecessary dict:
my_dict.update(foo='bar', foo2='baz')
and my_dict is now:
{'key 2': 'value 2', 'key 3': 'value 3', 'new key': 'new value',
'foo': 'bar', 'foo2': 'baz'}
So now we have covered three Pythonic ways of updating a dict.
Magic method, __setitem__, and why it should be avoided
There's another way of updating a dict that you shouldn't use, which uses the __setitem__ method. Here's an example of how one might use the __setitem__ method to add a key-value pair to a dict, and a demonstration of the poor performance of using it:
>>> d = {}
>>> d.__setitem__('foo', 'bar')
>>> d
{'foo': 'bar'}
>>> def f():
... d = {}
... for i in xrange(100):
... d['foo'] = i
...
>>> def g():
... d = {}
... for i in xrange(100):
... d.__setitem__('foo', i)
...
>>> import timeit
>>> number = 100
>>> min(timeit.repeat(f, number=number))
0.0020880699157714844
>>> min(timeit.repeat(g, number=number))
0.005071878433227539
So we see that using the subscript notation is actually much faster than using __setitem__. Doing the Pythonic thing, that is, using the language in the way it was intended to be used, usually is both more readable and computationally efficient.
dictionary[key] = value
If you want to add a dictionary within a dictionary you can do it this way.
Example: Add a new entry to your dictionary & sub dictionary
dictionary = {}
dictionary["new key"] = "some new entry" # add new dictionary entry
dictionary["dictionary_within_a_dictionary"] = {} # this is required by python
dictionary["dictionary_within_a_dictionary"]["sub_dict"] = {"other" : "dictionary"}
print (dictionary)
Output:
{'new key': 'some new entry', 'dictionary_within_a_dictionary': {'sub_dict': {'other': 'dictionarly'}}}
NOTE: Python requires that you first add a sub
dictionary["dictionary_within_a_dictionary"] = {}
before adding entries.
The conventional syntax is d[key] = value, but if your keyboard is missing the square bracket keys you could also do:
d.__setitem__(key, value)
In fact, defining __getitem__ and __setitem__ methods is how you can make your own class support the square bracket syntax. See Dive Into Python, Classes That Act Like Dictionaries.
You can create one:
class myDict(dict):
def __init__(self):
self = dict()
def add(self, key, value):
self[key] = value
## example
myd = myDict()
myd.add('apples',6)
myd.add('bananas',3)
print(myd)
Gives:
>>>
{'apples': 6, 'bananas': 3}
This popular question addresses functional methods of merging dictionaries a and b.
Here are some of the more straightforward methods (tested in Python 3)...
c = dict( a, **b ) ## see also https://stackoverflow.com/q/2255878
c = dict( list(a.items()) + list(b.items()) )
c = dict( i for d in [a,b] for i in d.items() )
Note: The first method above only works if the keys in b are strings.
To add or modify a single element, the b dictionary would contain only that one element...
c = dict( a, **{'d':'dog'} ) ## returns a dictionary based on 'a'
This is equivalent to...
def functional_dict_add( dictionary, key, value ):
temp = dictionary.copy()
temp[key] = value
return temp
c = functional_dict_add( a, 'd', 'dog' )
Let's pretend you want to live in the immutable world and do not want to modify the original but want to create a new dict that is the result of adding a new key to the original.
In Python 3.5+ you can do:
params = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
new_params = {**params, **{'c': 3}}
The Python 2 equivalent is:
params = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
new_params = dict(params, **{'c': 3})
After either of these:
params is still equal to {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
and
new_params is equal to {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
There will be times when you don't want to modify the original (you only want the result of adding to the original). I find this a refreshing alternative to the following:
params = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
new_params = params.copy()
new_params['c'] = 3
or
params = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
new_params = params.copy()
new_params.update({'c': 3})
Reference: What does `**` mean in the expression `dict(d1, **d2)`?
There is also the strangely named, oddly behaved, and yet still handy dict.setdefault().
This
value = my_dict.setdefault(key, default)
basically just does this:
try:
value = my_dict[key]
except KeyError: # key not found
value = my_dict[key] = default
E.g.,
>>> mydict = {'a':1, 'b':2, 'c':3}
>>> mydict.setdefault('d', 4)
4 # returns new value at mydict['d']
>>> print(mydict)
{'a':1, 'b':2, 'c':3, 'd':4} # a new key/value pair was indeed added
# but see what happens when trying it on an existing key...
>>> mydict.setdefault('a', 111)
1 # old value was returned
>>> print(mydict)
{'a':1, 'b':2, 'c':3, 'd':4} # existing key was ignored
This question has already been answered ad nauseam, but since my
comment
gained a lot of traction, here it is as an answer:
Adding new keys without updating the existing dict
If you are here trying to figure out how to add a key and return a new dictionary (without modifying the existing one), you can do this using the techniques below
Python >= 3.5
new_dict = {**mydict, 'new_key': new_val}
Python < 3.5
new_dict = dict(mydict, new_key=new_val)
Note that with this approach, your key will need to follow the rules of valid identifier names in Python.
If you're not joining two dictionaries, but adding new key-value pairs to a dictionary, then using the subscript notation seems like the best way.
import timeit
timeit.timeit('dictionary = {"karga": 1, "darga": 2}; dictionary.update({"aaa": 123123, "asd": 233})')
>> 0.49582505226135254
timeit.timeit('dictionary = {"karga": 1, "darga": 2}; dictionary["aaa"] = 123123; dictionary["asd"] = 233;')
>> 0.20782899856567383
However, if you'd like to add, for example, thousands of new key-value pairs, you should consider using the update() method.
Here's another way that I didn't see here:
>>> foo = dict(a=1,b=2)
>>> foo
{'a': 1, 'b': 2}
>>> goo = dict(c=3,**foo)
>>> goo
{'c': 3, 'a': 1, 'b': 2}
You can use the dictionary constructor and implicit expansion to reconstruct a dictionary. Moreover, interestingly, this method can be used to control the positional order during dictionary construction (post Python 3.6). In fact, insertion order is guaranteed for Python 3.7 and above!
>>> foo = dict(a=1,b=2,c=3,d=4)
>>> new_dict = {k: v for k, v in list(foo.items())[:2]}
>>> new_dict
{'a': 1, 'b': 2}
>>> new_dict.update(newvalue=99)
>>> new_dict
{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'newvalue': 99}
>>> new_dict.update({k: v for k, v in list(foo.items())[2:]})
>>> new_dict
{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'newvalue': 99, 'c': 3, 'd': 4}
>>>
The above is using dictionary comprehension.
First to check whether the key already exists:
a={1:2,3:4}
a.get(1)
2
a.get(5)
None
Then you can add the new key and value.
Add a dictionary (key,value) class.
class myDict(dict):
def __init__(self):
self = dict()
def add(self, key, value):
#self[key] = value # add new key and value overwriting any exiting same key
if self.get(key)!=None:
print('key', key, 'already used') # report if key already used
self.setdefault(key, value) # if key exit do nothing
## example
myd = myDict()
name = "fred"
myd.add('apples',6)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add('bananas',3)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add('jack', 7)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add(name, myd)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add('apples', 23)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add(name, 2)
print(myd)
I think it would also be useful to point out Python's collections module that consists of many useful dictionary subclasses and wrappers that simplify the addition and modification of data types in a dictionary, specifically defaultdict:
dict subclass that calls a factory function to supply missing values
This is particularly useful if you are working with dictionaries that always consist of the same data types or structures, for example a dictionary of lists.
>>> from collections import defaultdict
>>> example = defaultdict(int)
>>> example['key'] += 1
>>> example['key']
defaultdict(<class 'int'>, {'key': 1})
If the key does not yet exist, defaultdict assigns the value given (in our case 10) as the initial value to the dictionary (often used inside loops). This operation therefore does two things: it adds a new key to a dictionary (as per question), and assigns the value if the key doesn't yet exist. With the standard dictionary, this would have raised an error as the += operation is trying to access a value that doesn't yet exist:
>>> example = dict()
>>> example['key'] += 1
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
KeyError: 'key'
Without the use of defaultdict, the amount of code to add a new element would be much greater and perhaps looks something like:
# This type of code would often be inside a loop
if 'key' not in example:
example['key'] = 0 # add key and initial value to dict; could also be a list
example['key'] += 1 # this is implementing a counter
defaultdict can also be used with complex data types such as list and set:
>>> example = defaultdict(list)
>>> example['key'].append(1)
>>> example
defaultdict(<class 'list'>, {'key': [1]})
Adding an element automatically initialises the list.
Adding keys to dictionary without using add
# Inserting/Updating single value
# subscript notation method
d['mynewkey'] = 'mynewvalue' # Updates if 'a' exists, else adds 'a'
# OR
d.update({'mynewkey': 'mynewvalue'})
# OR
d.update(dict('mynewkey'='mynewvalue'))
# OR
d.update('mynewkey'='mynewvalue')
print(d) # {'key': 'value', 'mynewkey': 'mynewvalue'}
# To add/update multiple keys simultaneously, use d.update():
x = {3:4, 5:6, 7:8}
d.update(x)
print(d) # {'key': 'value', 'mynewkey': 'mynewvalue', 3: 4, 5: 6, 7: 8}
# update operator |= now works for dictionaries:
d |= {'c':3,'d':4}
# Assigning new key value pair using dictionary unpacking.
data1 = {4:6, 9:10, 17:20}
data2 = {20:30, 32:48, 90:100}
data3 = { 38:"value", 99:"notvalid"}
d = {**data1, **data2, **data3}
# The merge operator | now works for dictionaries:
data = data1 | {'c':3,'d':4}
# Create a dictionary from two lists
data = dict(zip(list_with_keys, list_with_values))
dico["new key"] = "value"
I have data (counts) indexed by user_id and analysis_type_id obtained from a database. It's a list of 3-tuple. Sample data:
counts = [(4, 1, 4), (3, 5, 4), (2, 10, 4), (2, 10, 5)]
where the first item of each tuple is the count, the second the analysis_type_id, and the last the user_id.
I'd like to place that into a dictionary, so i can retrieve the counts quickly: given a user_id and analysis_type_id. It would have to be a two-level dictionary. Is there any better structure?
To construct the two-level dictionary "by hand", I would code:
dict = {4:{1:4,5:3,10:2},5:{10:2}}
Where user_id is the first dict key level, analysis_type_id is the second (sub-) key, and the count is the value inside the dict.
How would I create the "double-depth" in dict keys through list comprehension?
Or do I need to resort to a nested for-loop, where I first iterate through unique user_id values, then find matching analysis_type_id and fill in the counts ... one-at-a-time into the dict?
Two Tuple Keys
I would suggest abandoning the idea of nesting dictionaries and simply use two tuples as the keys directly. Like so:
d = { (user_id, analysis_type_id): count for count, analysis_type_id, user_id in counts}
The dictionary is a hash table. In python, each two tuple has a single hash value (not two hash values) and thus each two tuple is looked up based on its (relatively) unique hash. Therefore this is faster (2x faster, most of the time) than looking up the hash of TWO separate keys (first the user_id, then the analysis_type_id).
However, beware of premature optimization. Unless you're doing millions of lookups, the increase in performance of the flat dict is unlikely to matter. The real reason to favor the use of the two tuple here is that the syntax and readability of a two tuple solution is far superior than other solutions- that is, assuming the vast majority of the time you will be wanting to access items based on a pair of values and not groups of items based on a single value.
Consider Using a namedtuple
It may be convenient to create a named tuple for storing those keys. Do that this way:
from collections import namedtuple
IdPair = namedtuple("IdPair", "user_id, analysis_type_id")
Then use it in your dictionary comprehension:
d = { IdPair(user_id, analysis_type_id): count for count, analysis_type_id, user_id in counts}
And access a count you're interested in like this:
somepair = IdPair(user_id = 4, analysis_type_id = 1)
d[somepair]
The reason this is sometimes useful is you can do things like this:
user_id = somepair.user_id # very nice syntax
Some Other Useful Options
One downside of the above solution is the case in which your lookup fails. In that case, you will only get a traceback like the following:
>>> d[IdPair(0,0)]
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
KeyError: IdPair(user_id=0, analysis_type_id=0)
This isn't very helpful; was it the user_id that was unmatched, or the analysis_type_id, or both?
You can create a better tool for yourself by creating your own dict type that gives you a nice traceback with more information. It might look something like this:
class CountsDict(dict):
"""A dict for storing IdPair keys and count values as integers.
Provides more detailed traceback information than a regular dict.
"""
def __getitem__(self, k):
try:
return super().__getitem__(k)
except KeyError as exc:
raise self._handle_bad_key(k, exc) from exc
def _handle_bad_key(self, k, exc):
"""Provides a custom exception when a bad key is given."""
try:
user_id, analysis_type_id = k
except:
return exc
has_u_id = next((True for u_id, _ in self if u_id==user_id), False)
has_at_id = next((True for _, at_id in self if at_id==analysis_type_id), False)
exc_lookup = {(False, False):KeyError(f"CountsDict missing pair: {k}"),
(True, False):KeyError(f"CountsDict missing analysis_type_id: "
f"{analysis_type_id}"),
(False, True):KeyError(f"CountsDict missing user_id: {user_id}")}
return exc_lookup[(user_id, analysis_type_id)]
Use it just like a regular dict.
However, it may make MORE sense to simply add new pairs to your dict (with a count of zero) when you try to access a missing pair. If this is the case, I'd use a defaultdict and have it set the count to zero (using the default value of int as the factory function) when a missing key is accessed. Like so:
from collections import defaultdict
my_dict = defaultdict(default_factory=int,
((user_id, analysis_type_id), count) for count, analysis_type_id, user_id in counts))
Now if you attempt to access a key that is missing, the count will be set to zero. However, one problem with this method is that ALL keys will be set to zero:
value = my_dict['I'm not a two tuple, sucka!!!!'] # <-- will be added to my_dict
To prevent this, we go back to the idea of making a CountsDict, except in this case, your special dict will be a subclass of defaultdict. However, unlike a regular defaultdict, it will check to make sure the key is a valid kind before it is added. And as a bonus, we can make sure ANY two tuple that is added as a key becomes an IdPair.
from collections import defaultdict
class CountsDict(defaultdict):
"""A dict for storing IdPair keys and count values as integers.
Missing two-tuple keys are converted to an IdPair. Invalid keys raise a KeyError.
"""
def __getitem__(self, k):
try:
user_id, analysis_type_id = k
except:
raise KeyError(f"The provided key {k!r} is not a valid key.")
else:
# convert two tuple to an IdPair if it was not already
k = IdPair(user_id, analysis_type_id)
return super().__getitem__(k)
Use it just like the regular defaultdict:
my_dict = CountsDict(default_factory=int,
((user_id, analysis_type_id), count) for count, analysis_type_id, user_id in counts))
NOTE: In the above I have not made it so that two tuple keys are converted to IdPairs upon instance creation (because __setitem__ is not utilized during instance creation). To create this functionality, we would also need to implement an override of the __init__ method.
Wrap Up
Out of all of these, the more useful option depends entirely on your use case.
The most readable solution utilizes a defaultdict which saves you nested loops and bumpy checking if keys already exist:
from collections import defaultdict
dct = defaultdict(dict) # do not shadow the built-in 'dict'
for x, y, z in counts:
dct[z][y] = x
dct
# defaultdict(dict, {4: {1: 4, 5: 3, 10: 2}, 5: {10: 2}})
If you really want a one-liner comprehension you can use itertools.groupby and this clunkiness:
from itertools import groupby
dct = {k: {y: x for x, y, _ in g} for k, g in groupby(sorted(counts, key=lambda c: c[2]), key=lambda c: c[2])}
If your initial data is already sorted by user_id, you can save yourself the sorting.
This is a good use for the defaultdict object. You can create a defaultdict whose elements are always dicts. Then you can just stuff the counts into the right dicts, like this:
from collections import defaultdict
counts = [(4, 1, 4), (3, 5, 4), (2, 10, 4), (2, 10, 5)]
dct = defaultdict(dict)
for count, analysis_type_id, user_id in counts:
dct[user_id][analysis_type_id]=count
dct
# defaultdict(dict, {4: {1: 4, 5: 3, 10: 2}, 5: {10: 2}})
# if you want a 'normal' dict, you can finish with this:
dct = dict(dct)
Or you can just use standard dicts with setdefault:
counts = [(4, 1, 4), (3, 5, 4), (2, 10, 4), (2, 10, 5)]
dct = dict()
for count, analysis_type_id, user_id in counts:
dct.setdefault(user_id, dict())
dct[user_id][analysis_type_id]=count
dct
# {4: {1: 4, 5: 3, 10: 2}, 5: {10: 2}}
I don't think you can do this neatly with a list comprehension, but there's no need to be afraid of a for-loop for this kind of thing.
you could use the following logic. It's no need to import any package, just we should use for loops properly.
counts = [(4, 1, 4), (3, 5, 4), (2, 10, 4), (2, 10, 5)]
dct = {x[2]:{y[1]:y[0] for y in counts if x[2] == y[2]} for x in counts }
"""output will be {4: {1: 4, 5: 3, 10: 2}, 5: {10: 2}} """
You can list comprehension for nested loops with condition and use one or more of them for elements selections:
# create dict with tuples
line_dict = {str(nest_list[0]) : nest_list[1:] for nest_list in nest_lists for elem in nest_list if elem== nest_list[0]}
print(line_dict)
# create dict with list
line_dict1 = {str(nest_list[0]) list(nest_list[1:]) for nest_list in nest_lists for elem in nest_list if elem== nest_list[0]}
print(line_dict1)
Example: nest_lists = [("a","aa","aaa","aaaa"), ("b","bb","bbb","bbbb") ("c","cc","ccc","cccc"), ("d","dd","ddd","dddd")]
Output: {'a': ('aa', 'aaa', 'aaaa'), 'b': ('bb', 'bbb', 'bbbb'), 'c': ('cc', 'ccc', 'cccc'), 'd': ('dd', 'ddd', 'dddd')}, {'a': ['aa', 'aaa', 'aaaa'], 'b': ['bb', 'bbb', 'bbbb'], 'c': ['cc', 'ccc', 'cccc'], 'd': ['dd', 'ddd', 'dddd']}
I have a list with the same values as the keys of a dictionary. I want to write a code that does something to the values of the dictionary (e.g. increases them by one) as many times as their key appears in the list.
So e.g.
listy=['dgdg','thth','zuh','zuh','thth','dgdg']
dicty = {'dgdg':1, 'thth':2, 'zuh':5}
I tried this code:
def functy (listx,dictx):
for i in range (0, len(listx)):
for k,v in dictx:
if listx[i]==k:
v=v+1
else:
pass
functy(listy, dicty)
But it raises this error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Python34\8.py", line 12, in <module>
functy(listy, dicty)
File "C:\Python34\8.py", line 6, in functy
for k,v in dictx:
ValueError: too many values to unpack (expected 2)
Could you tell me why it doesn't work and how I can make it?
dict.__iter__ will by default refer to dict.keys().
Because you want both the key and its value it should be
for k,v in dictx.items():
which will yield a list of tuples:
>>> a={1:2,2:3,3:4}
>>> a.items()
[(1, 2), (2, 3), (3, 4)]
iteritems is also available, but yields from a generator instead of a list:
>>> a.iteritems()
<dictionary-itemiterator object at 0x00000000030115E8>
However, you should take into consideration directly indexing by key, otherwise your assignment v=v+1 will not be persisted to the dict:
def functy (listx,dictx):
for item in listx:
if item in dictx:
dictx[item]+=1
>>> listy=['dgdg','thth','zuh','zuh','thth','dgdg']
>>> dicty = {'dgdg':1, 'thth':2, 'zuh':5}
>>> print dicty
{'thth': 2, 'zuh': 5, 'dgdg': 1}
>>> functy(listy, dicty)
>>> print dicty
{'thth': 4, 'zuh': 7, 'dgdg': 3}
You're missing the point of having a dictionary, which is that you can index it directly by key instead of iterating over it:
def functy(listx, dictx):
for item in listx:
if item in dictx:
dictx[item] += 1
It looks like you're trying to use a dictionary as a counter. If that's the case, why not use the built-in Python Counter?
from collections import Counter
dicty = Counter({'dgdg':1, 'thth':2, 'zuh':5})
dicty += Counter(['dgdg','thth','zuh','zuh','thth','dgdg'])
# dicty is now Counter({'zuh': 7, 'thth': 4, 'dgdg': 3})
I suggest you use collections.Counter, which is a dict subclass for counting hashable objects.
>>> import collections
>>> count_y = collections.Counter(dicty) # convert dicty into a Counter
>>> count_y.update(item for item in listy if item in count_y)
>>> count_y
Counter({'zuh': 7, 'thth': 4, 'dgdg': 3})
You can iterate a dictionary like this:
for k in dictx:
v = dictx[k]
dictx.items() instead of dictx. When trying to iterate over dictx you are receiving only keys.
listy=['dgdg','thth','zuh','zuh','thth','dgdg']
dicty = {'dgdg':1, 'thth':2, 'zuh':5}
# items() missed and also dicty not updated in the original script
def functy (listx,dictx):
for i in range (0, len(listx)):
for k,v in dictx.items():
if listx[i]==k:
dictx[k] += 1
else:
pass
functy(listy, dicty)
print(dicty)
{'dgdg': 3, 'thth': 4, 'zuh': 7}
I was trying to update values in my dictionary, I came across 2 ways to do so:
product.update(map(key, value))
product.update(key, value)
What is the difference between them?
The difference is that the second method does not work:
>>> {}.update(1, 2)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: update expected at most 1 arguments, got 2
dict.update() expects to find a iterable of key-value pairs, keyword arguments, or another dictionary:
Update the dictionary with the key/value pairs from other, overwriting existing keys. Return None.
update() accepts either another dictionary object or an iterable of key/value pairs (as tuples or other iterables of length two). If keyword arguments are specified, the dictionary is then updated with those key/value pairs: d.update(red=1, blue=2).
map() is a built-in method that produces a sequence by applying the elements of the second (and subsequent) arguments to the first argument, which must be a callable. Unless your key object is a callable and the value object is a sequence, your first method will fail too.
Demo of a working map() application:
>>> def key(v):
... return (v, v)
...
>>> value = range(3)
>>> map(key, value)
[(0, 0), (1, 1), (2, 2)]
>>> product = {}
>>> product.update(map(key, value))
>>> product
{0: 0, 1: 1, 2: 2}
Here map() just produces key-value pairs, which satisfies the dict.update() expectations.
Python 3.9 and PEP 584 introduces the dict union, for updating one dict from another dict.
Dict union will return a new dict consisting of the left operand merged with the right operand, each of which must be a dict (or an instance of a dict subclass). If a key appears in both operands, the last-seen value (i.e. that from the right-hand operand) wins.
See SO: How do I merge two dictionaries in a single expression? for merging with the new augmented assignment version.
This answer.
>>> d = {'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'cheese': 3}
>>> e = {'cheese': 'cheddar', 'aardvark': 'Ethel'}
>>> d | e
{'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'cheese': 'cheddar', 'aardvark': 'Ethel'}
>>> e | d
{'aardvark': 'Ethel', 'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'cheese': 3}
Additional examples from the PEP.
Motivation
The current ways to merge two dicts have several disadvantages:
dict.update
d1.update(d2) modifies d1 in-place. e = d1.copy(); e.update(d2) is not an expression and needs a temporary variable.
{**d1, **d2}
Dict unpacking looks ugly and is not easily discoverable. Few people would be able to guess what it means the first time they see it, or think of it as the "obvious way" to merge two dicts.
How do I add a key to an existing dictionary? It doesn't have an .add() method.
You create a new key/value pair on a dictionary by assigning a value to that key
d = {'key': 'value'}
print(d) # {'key': 'value'}
d['mynewkey'] = 'mynewvalue'
print(d) # {'key': 'value', 'mynewkey': 'mynewvalue'}
If the key doesn't exist, it's added and points to that value. If it exists, the current value it points to is overwritten.
I feel like consolidating info about Python dictionaries:
Creating an empty dictionary
data = {}
# OR
data = dict()
Creating a dictionary with initial values
data = {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
# OR
data = dict(a=1, b=2, c=3)
# OR
data = {k: v for k, v in (('a', 1), ('b',2), ('c',3))}
Inserting/Updating a single value
data['a'] = 1 # Updates if 'a' exists, else adds 'a'
# OR
data.update({'a': 1})
# OR
data.update(dict(a=1))
# OR
data.update(a=1)
Inserting/Updating multiple values
data.update({'c':3,'d':4}) # Updates 'c' and adds 'd'
Python 3.9+:
The update operator |= now works for dictionaries:
data |= {'c':3,'d':4}
Creating a merged dictionary without modifying originals
data3 = {}
data3.update(data) # Modifies data3, not data
data3.update(data2) # Modifies data3, not data2
Python 3.5+:
This uses a new feature called dictionary unpacking.
data = {**data1, **data2, **data3}
Python 3.9+:
The merge operator | now works for dictionaries:
data = data1 | {'c':3,'d':4}
Deleting items in dictionary
del data[key] # Removes specific element in a dictionary
data.pop(key) # Removes the key & returns the value
data.clear() # Clears entire dictionary
Check if a key is already in dictionary
key in data
Iterate through pairs in a dictionary
for key in data: # Iterates just through the keys, ignoring the values
for key, value in d.items(): # Iterates through the pairs
for key in d.keys(): # Iterates just through key, ignoring the values
for value in d.values(): # Iterates just through value, ignoring the keys
Create a dictionary from two lists
data = dict(zip(list_with_keys, list_with_values))
To add multiple keys simultaneously, use dict.update():
>>> x = {1:2}
>>> print(x)
{1: 2}
>>> d = {3:4, 5:6, 7:8}
>>> x.update(d)
>>> print(x)
{1: 2, 3: 4, 5: 6, 7: 8}
For adding a single key, the accepted answer has less computational overhead.
"Is it possible to add a key to a Python dictionary after it has been created? It doesn't seem to have an .add() method."
Yes it is possible, and it does have a method that implements this, but you don't want to use it directly.
To demonstrate how and how not to use it, let's create an empty dict with the dict literal, {}:
my_dict = {}
Best Practice 1: Subscript notation
To update this dict with a single new key and value, you can use the subscript notation (see Mappings here) that provides for item assignment:
my_dict['new key'] = 'new value'
my_dict is now:
{'new key': 'new value'}
Best Practice 2: The update method - 2 ways
We can also update the dict with multiple values efficiently as well using the update method. We may be unnecessarily creating an extra dict here, so we hope our dict has already been created and came from or was used for another purpose:
my_dict.update({'key 2': 'value 2', 'key 3': 'value 3'})
my_dict is now:
{'key 2': 'value 2', 'key 3': 'value 3', 'new key': 'new value'}
Another efficient way of doing this with the update method is with keyword arguments, but since they have to be legitimate python words, you can't have spaces or special symbols or start the name with a number, but many consider this a more readable way to create keys for a dict, and here we certainly avoid creating an extra unnecessary dict:
my_dict.update(foo='bar', foo2='baz')
and my_dict is now:
{'key 2': 'value 2', 'key 3': 'value 3', 'new key': 'new value',
'foo': 'bar', 'foo2': 'baz'}
So now we have covered three Pythonic ways of updating a dict.
Magic method, __setitem__, and why it should be avoided
There's another way of updating a dict that you shouldn't use, which uses the __setitem__ method. Here's an example of how one might use the __setitem__ method to add a key-value pair to a dict, and a demonstration of the poor performance of using it:
>>> d = {}
>>> d.__setitem__('foo', 'bar')
>>> d
{'foo': 'bar'}
>>> def f():
... d = {}
... for i in xrange(100):
... d['foo'] = i
...
>>> def g():
... d = {}
... for i in xrange(100):
... d.__setitem__('foo', i)
...
>>> import timeit
>>> number = 100
>>> min(timeit.repeat(f, number=number))
0.0020880699157714844
>>> min(timeit.repeat(g, number=number))
0.005071878433227539
So we see that using the subscript notation is actually much faster than using __setitem__. Doing the Pythonic thing, that is, using the language in the way it was intended to be used, usually is both more readable and computationally efficient.
dictionary[key] = value
If you want to add a dictionary within a dictionary you can do it this way.
Example: Add a new entry to your dictionary & sub dictionary
dictionary = {}
dictionary["new key"] = "some new entry" # add new dictionary entry
dictionary["dictionary_within_a_dictionary"] = {} # this is required by python
dictionary["dictionary_within_a_dictionary"]["sub_dict"] = {"other" : "dictionary"}
print (dictionary)
Output:
{'new key': 'some new entry', 'dictionary_within_a_dictionary': {'sub_dict': {'other': 'dictionarly'}}}
NOTE: Python requires that you first add a sub
dictionary["dictionary_within_a_dictionary"] = {}
before adding entries.
The conventional syntax is d[key] = value, but if your keyboard is missing the square bracket keys you could also do:
d.__setitem__(key, value)
In fact, defining __getitem__ and __setitem__ methods is how you can make your own class support the square bracket syntax. See Dive Into Python, Classes That Act Like Dictionaries.
You can create one:
class myDict(dict):
def __init__(self):
self = dict()
def add(self, key, value):
self[key] = value
## example
myd = myDict()
myd.add('apples',6)
myd.add('bananas',3)
print(myd)
Gives:
>>>
{'apples': 6, 'bananas': 3}
This popular question addresses functional methods of merging dictionaries a and b.
Here are some of the more straightforward methods (tested in Python 3)...
c = dict( a, **b ) ## see also https://stackoverflow.com/q/2255878
c = dict( list(a.items()) + list(b.items()) )
c = dict( i for d in [a,b] for i in d.items() )
Note: The first method above only works if the keys in b are strings.
To add or modify a single element, the b dictionary would contain only that one element...
c = dict( a, **{'d':'dog'} ) ## returns a dictionary based on 'a'
This is equivalent to...
def functional_dict_add( dictionary, key, value ):
temp = dictionary.copy()
temp[key] = value
return temp
c = functional_dict_add( a, 'd', 'dog' )
Let's pretend you want to live in the immutable world and do not want to modify the original but want to create a new dict that is the result of adding a new key to the original.
In Python 3.5+ you can do:
params = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
new_params = {**params, **{'c': 3}}
The Python 2 equivalent is:
params = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
new_params = dict(params, **{'c': 3})
After either of these:
params is still equal to {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
and
new_params is equal to {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}
There will be times when you don't want to modify the original (you only want the result of adding to the original). I find this a refreshing alternative to the following:
params = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
new_params = params.copy()
new_params['c'] = 3
or
params = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
new_params = params.copy()
new_params.update({'c': 3})
Reference: What does `**` mean in the expression `dict(d1, **d2)`?
There is also the strangely named, oddly behaved, and yet still handy dict.setdefault().
This
value = my_dict.setdefault(key, default)
basically just does this:
try:
value = my_dict[key]
except KeyError: # key not found
value = my_dict[key] = default
E.g.,
>>> mydict = {'a':1, 'b':2, 'c':3}
>>> mydict.setdefault('d', 4)
4 # returns new value at mydict['d']
>>> print(mydict)
{'a':1, 'b':2, 'c':3, 'd':4} # a new key/value pair was indeed added
# but see what happens when trying it on an existing key...
>>> mydict.setdefault('a', 111)
1 # old value was returned
>>> print(mydict)
{'a':1, 'b':2, 'c':3, 'd':4} # existing key was ignored
This question has already been answered ad nauseam, but since my
comment
gained a lot of traction, here it is as an answer:
Adding new keys without updating the existing dict
If you are here trying to figure out how to add a key and return a new dictionary (without modifying the existing one), you can do this using the techniques below
Python >= 3.5
new_dict = {**mydict, 'new_key': new_val}
Python < 3.5
new_dict = dict(mydict, new_key=new_val)
Note that with this approach, your key will need to follow the rules of valid identifier names in Python.
If you're not joining two dictionaries, but adding new key-value pairs to a dictionary, then using the subscript notation seems like the best way.
import timeit
timeit.timeit('dictionary = {"karga": 1, "darga": 2}; dictionary.update({"aaa": 123123, "asd": 233})')
>> 0.49582505226135254
timeit.timeit('dictionary = {"karga": 1, "darga": 2}; dictionary["aaa"] = 123123; dictionary["asd"] = 233;')
>> 0.20782899856567383
However, if you'd like to add, for example, thousands of new key-value pairs, you should consider using the update() method.
Here's another way that I didn't see here:
>>> foo = dict(a=1,b=2)
>>> foo
{'a': 1, 'b': 2}
>>> goo = dict(c=3,**foo)
>>> goo
{'c': 3, 'a': 1, 'b': 2}
You can use the dictionary constructor and implicit expansion to reconstruct a dictionary. Moreover, interestingly, this method can be used to control the positional order during dictionary construction (post Python 3.6). In fact, insertion order is guaranteed for Python 3.7 and above!
>>> foo = dict(a=1,b=2,c=3,d=4)
>>> new_dict = {k: v for k, v in list(foo.items())[:2]}
>>> new_dict
{'a': 1, 'b': 2}
>>> new_dict.update(newvalue=99)
>>> new_dict
{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'newvalue': 99}
>>> new_dict.update({k: v for k, v in list(foo.items())[2:]})
>>> new_dict
{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'newvalue': 99, 'c': 3, 'd': 4}
>>>
The above is using dictionary comprehension.
First to check whether the key already exists:
a={1:2,3:4}
a.get(1)
2
a.get(5)
None
Then you can add the new key and value.
Add a dictionary (key,value) class.
class myDict(dict):
def __init__(self):
self = dict()
def add(self, key, value):
#self[key] = value # add new key and value overwriting any exiting same key
if self.get(key)!=None:
print('key', key, 'already used') # report if key already used
self.setdefault(key, value) # if key exit do nothing
## example
myd = myDict()
name = "fred"
myd.add('apples',6)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add('bananas',3)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add('jack', 7)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add(name, myd)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add('apples', 23)
print('\n', myd)
myd.add(name, 2)
print(myd)
I think it would also be useful to point out Python's collections module that consists of many useful dictionary subclasses and wrappers that simplify the addition and modification of data types in a dictionary, specifically defaultdict:
dict subclass that calls a factory function to supply missing values
This is particularly useful if you are working with dictionaries that always consist of the same data types or structures, for example a dictionary of lists.
>>> from collections import defaultdict
>>> example = defaultdict(int)
>>> example['key'] += 1
>>> example['key']
defaultdict(<class 'int'>, {'key': 1})
If the key does not yet exist, defaultdict assigns the value given (in our case 10) as the initial value to the dictionary (often used inside loops). This operation therefore does two things: it adds a new key to a dictionary (as per question), and assigns the value if the key doesn't yet exist. With the standard dictionary, this would have raised an error as the += operation is trying to access a value that doesn't yet exist:
>>> example = dict()
>>> example['key'] += 1
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
KeyError: 'key'
Without the use of defaultdict, the amount of code to add a new element would be much greater and perhaps looks something like:
# This type of code would often be inside a loop
if 'key' not in example:
example['key'] = 0 # add key and initial value to dict; could also be a list
example['key'] += 1 # this is implementing a counter
defaultdict can also be used with complex data types such as list and set:
>>> example = defaultdict(list)
>>> example['key'].append(1)
>>> example
defaultdict(<class 'list'>, {'key': [1]})
Adding an element automatically initialises the list.
Adding keys to dictionary without using add
# Inserting/Updating single value
# subscript notation method
d['mynewkey'] = 'mynewvalue' # Updates if 'a' exists, else adds 'a'
# OR
d.update({'mynewkey': 'mynewvalue'})
# OR
d.update(dict('mynewkey'='mynewvalue'))
# OR
d.update('mynewkey'='mynewvalue')
print(d) # {'key': 'value', 'mynewkey': 'mynewvalue'}
# To add/update multiple keys simultaneously, use d.update():
x = {3:4, 5:6, 7:8}
d.update(x)
print(d) # {'key': 'value', 'mynewkey': 'mynewvalue', 3: 4, 5: 6, 7: 8}
# update operator |= now works for dictionaries:
d |= {'c':3,'d':4}
# Assigning new key value pair using dictionary unpacking.
data1 = {4:6, 9:10, 17:20}
data2 = {20:30, 32:48, 90:100}
data3 = { 38:"value", 99:"notvalid"}
d = {**data1, **data2, **data3}
# The merge operator | now works for dictionaries:
data = data1 | {'c':3,'d':4}
# Create a dictionary from two lists
data = dict(zip(list_with_keys, list_with_values))
dico["new key"] = "value"