Python Dictionary - BCA 1st Semester Notes
Definition: A Dictionary in Python is a collection of key–value pairs. Each key is unique and is used
to access its corresponding value. It is unordered, mutable, indexed and written in curly braces {}.
Syntax & Example:
student = {
"name": "Rahul",
"roll_no": 101,
"course": "BCA",
"marks": 85
}
print(student)
print(student["name"])
print(student.get("marks"))
Output:
{'name': 'Rahul', 'roll_no': 101, 'course': 'BCA', 'marks': 85}
Rahul
85
Types of Dictionary:
1. Empty Dictionary → d = {}
2. Dictionary with Integer Keys → {1: "Apple", 2: "Banana"}
3. Dictionary with Mixed Keys → {"id": 101, "name": "Shreya", 10: "Ten"}
4. Nested Dictionary → {"name": "Aman", "marks": {"Math":90,"CS":95}}
Dictionary Methods:
Method Description Example Output
keys() Returns all keys student.keys() dict_keys([...])
values() Returns all values student.values() dict_values([...])
items() Returns key-value pairs student.items() dict_items([...])
get(key) Returns value for a key student.get('course') BCA
update() Updates dictionary student.update({'marks':90}) marks=90
pop(key) Removes item by key student.pop('course') Removes 'course':'BCA'
clear() Removes all items student.clear() {}
len() Returns total items len(student) 4
Important Examples:
1. Add new key → student["age"] = 20
2. Loop through dictionary → for k,v in student.items(): print(k,":",v)
3. Check if key exists → if "marks" in student: print("Marks found")
Previous Year Questions (PYQ) & Practice:
1. What is a dictionary in Python? Write syntax with example.
2. Difference between List and Dictionary.
3. Program to create dictionary of 5 students (roll_no: name).
4. Program to count frequency of each character in a string.
5. Create nested dictionary of students and print marks.
6. Store item names & prices in dictionary, update one & delete another.
7. Find maximum and minimum values in dictionary.
8. Merge two dictionaries.
Example Exam Question:
Q: Write a Python program to count the frequency of words in a sentence using dictionary.
sentence = "python is easy and python is powerful"
words = sentence.split()
freq = {}
for word in words:
freq[word] = freq.get(word, 0) + 1
print(freq)
Output:
{'python': 2, 'is': 2, 'easy': 1, 'and': 1, 'powerful': 1}
