
A dictionary allows you to store and manipulate data in key-value pairs, making it a powerful tool for many programming tasks. In this article, we will explore some Python dictionaries practice exercises for beginners with simple examples to help you grasp this essential concept.
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What is a Dictionary?
Before diving into the exercises, let’s understand what a dictionary is in Python. A dictionary is an unordered collection of key-value pairs. Each key is unique and maps to a specific value. Think of it like a real-life dictionary where you look up a word (the key) to find its meaning (the value). Below example code is to create a dictionary in Python:
my_dict = {"apple": "a fruit", "dog": "a pet", "car": "a vehicle"}
print(my_dict)
{'apple': 'a fruit', 'dog': 'a pet', 'car': 'a vehicle'}
Now, let’s begin with some practice exercises to gain confidence in Python dictionaries:
Exercise 1: Creating a Dictionary
Create a dictionary called student
with the following key-value pairs:
- “name” – “John”
- “age” – 20
- “grade” – “A”
student = {"name": "John", "age": 20, "grade": "A"}
Exercise 2: Accessing Values
Given the student
dictionary from Exercise 1, write code to print the student’s name and age.
# dictionaries exercises python
student = {"name": "John", "age": 20, "grade": "A"}
print("Student Name:", student["name"])
print("Student Age:", student["age"])
Student Name: John
Student Age: 20
Exercise 3: Modifying Values
Change the grade of the student
to “B”.
# dictionaries exercises python
student = {"name": "John", "age": 20, "grade": "A"}
student["grade"] = "B"
print(student)
{'name': 'John', 'age': 20, 'grade': 'B'}
Exercise 4: Adding Key-Value Pairs
Add a new key-value pair to the student
dictionary for “city” with the value “Mumbai.”
# dictionaries exercises python
student = {"name": "John", "age": 20, "grade": "A"}
student["city"] = "Mumbai"
print(student)
{'name': 'John', 'age': 20, 'grade': 'A', 'city': 'Mumbai'}
Exercise 5: Deleting Key-Value Pairs
Remove the “grade” key and its corresponding value from the student
dictionary.
# dictionaries exercises python
student = {'name': 'John', 'age': 20, 'grade': 'A', 'city': 'Mumbai'}
del student["grade"]
print(student)
{'name': 'John', 'age': 20, 'city': 'Mumbai'}
Exercise 6: Checking if a Key Exists
Write code to check if the “age” key exists in the student
dictionary. Print “Age key exists” if it does; otherwise, print “Age key does not exist.”
# dictionaries exercises python
student = {'name': 'John', 'age': 20, 'grade': 'A', 'city': 'Mumbai'}
if "age" in student:
print("Age key exists")
else:
print("Age key does not exist")
Age key exists
Exercise 7: Iterating Through a Dictionary
In this Python exercises of dictionaries write code to iterate through the student
dictionary and print all the key-value pairs.
# dictionaries exercises python
student = {'name': 'John', 'age': 20, 'grade': 'A', 'city': 'Mumbai'}
for key, value in student.items():
print(key, ":", value)
name : John
age : 20
grade : A
city : Mumbai
Exercise 8: Merging Dictionaries
Create two dictionaries, dict1
and dict2
, with some key-value pairs. Merge these dictionaries into a new dictionary called merged_dict
.
dict1 = {"a": 1, "b": 2}
dict2 = {"c": 3, "d": 4}
merged_dict = {**dict1, **dict2}
print(merged_dict)
{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3, 'd': 4}
Exercise 9: Summing Values
In this Python practice exercise create a dictionary expenses
with different categories as keys (e.g., “food,” “rent,” “transport”) and their corresponding expenses as values. Write code to calculate and print the total expenses.
# python dictionaries exercises problem solution
expenses = {"food": 200, "rent": 1000, "transport": 150, "entertainment": 50}
total_expenses = sum(expenses.values())
print("Total expenses:", total_expenses)
Total expenses: 1400
Exercise 10: Dictionary Comprehension
Create a dictionary called squared_numbers
that contains the squares of numbers from 1 to 10 using dictionary comprehension.
squared_numbers = {x: x**2 for x in range(1, 11)}
print(squared_numbers)
{1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9, 4: 16, 5: 25, 6: 36, 7: 49, 8: 64, 9: 81, 10: 100}
Exercise 11: Nested Dictionaries
Create a nested dictionary called student_records
with information about multiple students. Each student should have a unique student ID as the key and a dictionary of attributes (e.g., name, age, grade) as the value.
student_records = {
101: {"name": "Alice", "age": 19, "grade": "A"},
102: {"name": "Bob", "age": 20, "grade": "B"},
103: {"name": "Charlie", "age": 18, "grade": "A"},
}
print(student_records)
{101: {'name': 'Alice', 'age': 19, 'grade': 'A'}, 102: {'name': 'Bob', 'age': 20, 'grade': 'B'}, 103: {'name': 'Charlie', 'age': 18, 'grade': 'A'}}
Exercise 12: Converting Lists to a Dictionary
Create two lists, keys
and values
, and write code to create a dictionary where elements from the keys
list become keys and elements from the values
list become values.
keys = ["name", "age", "city"]
values = ["John", 25, "New York"]
new_dict = dict(zip(keys, values))
print(new_dict)
{'name': 'John', 'age': 25, 'city': 'New York'}
Conclusion
These practice exercises cover essential concepts related to Python dictionaries, you can read it as a pdf whenever you want. By working through them, beginners can gain confidence in using dictionaries and be better prepared to tackle more complex programming tasks.
This is it for this article. If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this article, please please drop a comment below. If you want to learn Python quickly then this Udemy course is for you: Learn Python in 100 days of coding.
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