From the course: Programming Foundations: Data Structures (2023)
What is a dictionary? - Python Tutorial
From the course: Programming Foundations: Data Structures (2023)
What is a dictionary?
- Onto our next data structure, dictionaries. Each data structure stores data in different ways, so you can optimize certain operations for your use case. A dictionary is a data structure that holds key-value pairs. A key-value pair represents a combination of two elements, a key which acts as an identifier, and a corresponding value associated with that key. Together, they form the basic building blocks of a dictionary data structure. A dictionary in Python acts similar to a real life dictionary where you look up words, but in Python, instead of words and their definitions, you have keys and their values. Just like you find the meaning of a word by looking it up in a traditional dictionary, you can retrieve the value associated with a key in a programming dictionary. Here's a quick example. Let's say we have a phone book containing key-value pairs. The keys are the names and the values are phone numbers associated with the names. The keys are unique within the dictionary. It acts as a label for a specific piece of data. This key could be of any type, whether that's a string, number, or something else. The value can also be any data type. It doesn't have to be the same as the key. The value represents information associated with that particular key. One of the main advantages of using this data structure is the ability to efficiently retrieve values based on their keys. Since each key is unique, it provides a direct and fast way to access the corresponding value without having to search through the entire dictionary.
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