Using the dictionary structure with for loops is incredibly efficient in python. In this card, I will show you some examples of ways to use dictionaries in for loops.
The first example I am going to cover is expanding a dictionary into a list of lists. Lets imagine that you have a dictionary where the key is the product, and the value is the number of the product in stock. Below is an example of how I want to change my data structure:
fruits = {'banana':3,'apple':2, 'mango':1, 'kiwi':5}
fruits_list = [
['banana', 'banana', 'banana'],
['apple', 'apple'],
['mango'],
['kiwi', 'kiwi', 'kiwi', 'kiwi', 'kiwi']]
To achieve this, we can start with writing out the steps to a solution.
We need to iterate all over fruits keys and build a list repeating the key N=value times.
I am going to do this using list comprehension.
- To iterate all over dict items you’ll need
fruits.items() - To build a list repeating each key N times do:
[key]*N - As dict values indicate how many times to repeat, do:
[key]*value
I can write this as a for loop and then convert it to list comprehension which I think is more intuitive. Below is the code as a for loop:
# Initialize the dictionary
fruits = {'banana':3,'apple':2, 'mango':1, 'kiwi':5}
# Create blank list to append to
fruits_list = []
# Create the for loop
for fruit, quantity in fruits.items():
# Append the list to the main list
fruits_list.append([fruit]*quantity)
# Print out the final list
print(fruits_list)
Now we could do the same thing with a list comprehension. List comprehension is the act of putting a for loop into a list. This may seem a little weird, but the makers of python realized that it was common enough to use a for loop to create a list that it was important to create a shortcut.
List Comprehension is tough at first, because it feels unnatural, but the more you code in python, the more you will find the added benefits of using list comprehension. Just remember: Everything you do with list comprehension can be done with a for loop. But the inverse is not true.
Syntax of List Comprehension
variable = [expression for item in list]
You can also add a conditional statement into a list comprehension:
variable = [ expression for item in list if conditional ]
So how does this apply to the above problem? Well, below I show how we can use this new format to assist us!
# Initialize the dictionary
fruits = {'banana':3,'apple':2, 'mango':1, 'kiwi':5}
# Create blank list to append to
fruits_list = [[fruit]*quantity for fruit, quantity in fruits.items()]
# Print out the final list
print(fruits_list)
We will explore more list comprehension in the future, so for now just make sure you understand how we are using the dictionary.items() method
