Why does the default dictionary in my code keep expanding? - python

I have a default dictionary and I run it through a couple of loops to look for certain strings in the dictionary. The loops don't really append anything to the dictionary yet as it turns out, during the loop, new items keep getting appended to the dictionary and the final dictionary ends up bigger than the original one before the loop.
I've been trying to pinpoint the error forever but now it's late and I have no idea what's causing this!
from collections import defaultdict
dummydict = defaultdict(list)
dummydict['Alex'].append('Naomi and I love hotcakes')
dummydict['Benjamin'].append('Hayley and I hate hotcakes')
part = ['Alex', 'Benjamin', 'Hayley', 'Naomi']
emp = []
for var in dummydict:
if 'I' in dummydict[var]:
emp.append(var)
for car in part:
for key in range(len(dummydict)):
print('new len', len(dummydict))
print(key, dummydict)
if car in dummydict[key]:
emp.append(car)
print(emp)
print('why are there new values in the dictionary?!', len(dummydict), dummydict)
I expect the dictionary to remain unchanged.

if car in dummydict[key]:
key being an integer, and your dict being initially filled with only string as keys, this will create a new value in dummydict for each key.

Accessing missing keys as in dummydict[key] will add those keys to the defaultdict. Note that key is an int, not the value at that position, as for key in range(len(dummydict)) iterates indexes, not the dict or its keys.

See the docs:
When each key is encountered for the first time, it is not already in the mapping; so an entry is automatically created using the default_factory function which returns an empty list.
For example, this code will show a dummydict with a value in it, because simply accessing dummydict[key] will add the key to the dict if that key is not already there.
from collections import defaultdict
dummydict = defaultdict(list)
dummydict[1]
print (dummydict)
outputs:
defaultdict(<class 'list'>, {1: []})
Your issue is that in your loop, you do things like dummydict[key] and dummydict[var], which adds those keys.

Related

How can I search for a specific key in a dictionary in Python?

So I got this dictionary from a csv file and I would like to look for a specific key inside this dictionary (actually the og idea was to search for said key in the csv file and then make a dictionary from that key down) but I don't really know how to do it.
So far I got:
df = pd.read_csv('data.csv')
dict = df.to_dict(orient='dict')
for index, line in enumerate(dict):
if "Wavelength [nm]" in line:
print(index)
The idea is to know the index of "Wavelength".
If you want the value of a key without knowing whether it's in the dict, often the most natural way is
value = dict.get( key, defaultvalue)
defaultvalue is what you would set value to in your code once you had established that the key is not present. Often, None, or an empty list or tuple.
If you just waht to check whether the key is present without accessing the value, use
if key in dict:
# do stuff
you can use:
if key in dict:
print(key,dict[key])

Iterating over A dict to access a specific key value

I have a list of dicts ('sortings') that I am trying to iterate through to access a values in one specific key of each dict. My code keeps saying that there is a key error for the desired value in the dict. If I print inside the for loop, it prints with the values entered but once I exit the for loop it says there is a key error.
for i in range(sort_len):
sentence = sortings[i]['content']
containing_messages.append(sentence)
print(containing_messages)
This is an answer for my understanding of the question. I would require the given input and expected output to provide a better answer.
list_of_dicts = [{'keya':'value1_1','keyb':'value2_1','keyc':'value3_1'},
{'keya':'value1_2','keyb':'value2_2','keyc':'value3_2'},
{'keya':'value1_3','keyb':'value2_3','keyc':'value3_3'}]
list_of_key_values = [my_dict['keyb'] for my_dict in list_of_dicts]
print list_of_key_values

Modify multiple keys of dictionary by a mapping dictionary

I have 2 dict, one original and one for mapping the original one's key to another value simultaneously,for instance:
original dict:
built_dict={'China':{'deportivo-cuenca-u20':{'danny':'test1'}},
'Germany':{'ajax-amsterdam-youth':{'lance':'test2'}}}
mapping dict:
club_team_dict={'deportivo-cuenca-u20':'deportivo','ajax-amsterdam-youth':'ajax'}
It works well if I use the following code to change the key of the nested dict of original dict,like
def club2team(built_dict,club_team_dict):
for row in built_dict:
# print test_dict[row]
for sub_row in built_dict[row]:
for key in club_team_dict:
# the key of club_team_dict must be a subset of test_dict,or you have to check it and then replace it
if sub_row==key:
built_dict[row][club_team_dict[sub_row]] = built_dict[row].pop(sub_row)
return built_dict
and the result:
{'Germany': {'ajax': {'lance': 'test2'}}, 'China': {'deportivo': {'danny': 'test1'}}}
so far so good, however if I have a dict with multiple key mapping to the same key,for example,my original dict is like
built_dict={'China':{'deportivo-cuenca-u20':{'danny':'test1'}},
'Germany':{'ajax-amsterdam-youth':{'lance':'test2'},
'ajax-amsterdam':{'tony':'test3'}}}
and the mapping dict with more then 1 key mapping to the same value,like:
club_team_dict={'deportivo-cuenca-u20':'deportivo',
'ajax-amsterdam-youth':'ajax',
'ajax-amsterdam':'ajax'}
as you can see, both 'ajax-amsterdam-youth'and 'ajax-amsterdam-youth' are mapping to 'ajax',and the trouble is when I use the same code to execute it, the original dict's size has been changed during the iteration
RuntimeError: dictionary changed size during iteration
I want to get a result with nested list for the same key like this
{'Germany': {'ajax':[{'lance': 'test2'},
{'tony' : 'test3'}]}},
'China': {'deportivo': [{'danny': 'test1'}]}}
Well I have found a solution for this,the code:
def club2team(built_dict,club_team_dict):
for row in built_dict:
# print test_dict[row]
for sub_row in built_dict[row].keys():
for key in club_team_dict:
# the key of club_team_dict must be a subset of test_dict,or you have to check it and then replace it
if sub_row==key:
# built_dict[row][club_team_dict[sub_row]] = built_dict[row].pop(sub_row)
built_dict[row].setdefault(club_team_dict[sub_row],[]).append(built_dict[row].pop(sub_row))
return built_dict
pay attention to the for sub_row in built_dict[row].keys(): and setdefault() method, I used to believe that in python 2.7, the default iteration for dict is just iterate the keys(), however, this time it proves it's a little different, maybe you have better solution, please show me and it will be appreciate,thank you

Add multiple values to dictionary

Here is my code:
for response in responses["result"]:
ids = {}
key = response['_id'].encode('ascii')
print key
for value in response['docs']:
ids[key].append(value)
Traceback:
File "people.py", line 47, in <module>
ids[key].append(value)
KeyError: 'deanna'
I am trying to add multiple values to a key. Throws an error like above
Check out setdefault:
ids.setdefault(key, []).append(value)
It looks to see if key is in ids, and if not, sets that to be an empty list. Then it returns that list for you to inline call append on.
Docs:
http://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#dict.setdefault
If I'm reading this correctly your intention is to map the _id of a response to its docs. In that case you can bring down everything you have above to a dict comprehension:
ids = {response['_id'].encode('ascii'): response['docs']
for response in responses['result']}
This also assumes you meant to have id = {} outside of the outermost loop, but I can't see any other reasonable interpretation.
If the above is not correct,
You can use collections.defaultdict
import collections # at top level
#then in your loop:
ids = collections.defaultdict(list) #instead of ids = {}
A dictionary whose default value will be created by calling the init argument, in this case calling list() will produce an empty list which can then be appended to.
To traverse the dictionary you can iterate over it's items()
for key, val in ids.items():
print(key, val)
The reason you're getting a KeyError is this: In the first iteration of your for loop, you look up the key in an empty dictionary. There is no such key, hence the KeyError.
The code you gave will work, if you first insert an empty list into the dictionary under to appropriate key. Then append the values to the list. Like so:
for response in responses["result"]:
ids = {}
key = response['_id'].encode('ascii')
print key
if key not in ids: ## <-- if we haven't seen key yet
ids[key] = [] ## <-- insert an empty list into the dictionary
for value in response['docs']:
ids[key].append(value)
The previous answers are correct. Both defaultdict and dictionary.setdefault are automatic ways of inserting the empty list.

Check if key exists in dictionary. If not, append it

I have a large python dict created from json data and am creating a smaller dict from the large one. Some elements of the large dictionary have a key called 'details' and some elements don't. What I want to do is check if the key exists in each entry in the large dictionary and if not, append the key 'details' with the value 'No details available' to the new dictionary. I am putting some sample code below just as a demonstration. The LargeDict is much larger with many keys in my code, but I'm keeping it simple for clarity.
LargeDict = {'results':
[{'name':'john','age':'23','datestart':'12/07/08','department':'Finance','details':'Good Employee'},
{'name':'barry','age':'26','datestart':'25/08/10','department':'HR','details':'Also does payroll'},
{'name':'sarah','age':'32','datestart':'13/05/05','department':'Sales','details':'Due for promotion'},
{'name':'lisa','age':'21','datestart':'02/05/12','department':'Finance'}]}
This is how I am getting the data for the SmallDict:
SmallDict = {d['name']:{'department':d['department'],'details':d['details']} for d in LargeDict['results']}
I get a key error however when one of the large dict entries has no details. Am I right in saying I need to use the DefaultDict module or is there an easier way?
You don't need a collections.defaultdict. You can use the setdefault method of dictionary objects.
d = {}
bar = d.setdefault('foo','bar') #returns 'bar'
print bar # bar
print d #{'foo': 'bar'}
As others have noted, if you don't want to add the key to the dictionary, you can use the get method.
here's an old reference that I often find myself looking at.
You could use collections.defaultdict if you want to create an entry in your dict automatically. However, if you don't, and just want "Not available" (or whatever), then you can just assign to the dict as d[key] = v and use d.get(k, 'Not available') for a default value
Use the get(key, defaultVar) method to supply a default value when the 'details' key is missing:
SmallDict = {d['name']:{'department':d['department'],'details':d.get('details','No details available')} for d in LargeDict['results']}

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