Dictionary Comprehensions

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A dictionary comprehension is similar to a list comprehension except that it produces a dictionary object instead of a list.

A basic example:

{x: x * x for x in (1, 2, 3, 4)}
# Out: {1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9, 4: 16}

which is just another way of writing:

dict((x, x * x) for x in (1, 2, 3, 4))
# Out: {1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9, 4: 16}

As with a list comprehension, we can use a conditional statement inside the dict comprehension to produce only the dict elements meeting some criterion.

{name: len(name) for name in ('Stack', 'Overflow', 'Exchange') if len(name) > 6}  
# Out: {'Exchange': 8, 'Overflow': 8}

Or, rewritten using a generator expression.

dict((name, len(name)) for name in ('Stack', 'Overflow', 'Exchange') if len(name) > 6)
# Out: {'Exchange': 8, 'Overflow': 8}

Starting with a dictionary and using dictionary comprehension as a key-value pair filter

initial_dict = {'x': 1, 'y': 2}
{key: value for key, value in initial_dict.items() if key == 'x'}
# Out: {'x': 1}

Switching key and value of dictionary (invert dictionary)

If you have a dict containing simple hashable values (duplicate values may have unexpected results):

my_dict = {1: 'a', 2: 'b', 3: 'c'}

and you wanted to swap the keys and values you can take several approaches depending on your coding style:

print(swapped)
# Out: {a: 1, b: 2, c: 3}

If your dictionary is large, consider importing itertools and utilize izip or imap.

Merging Dictionaries

Combine dictionaries and optionally override old values with a nested dictionary comprehension.

dict1 = {'w': 1, 'x': 1}
dict2 = {'x': 2, 'y': 2, 'z': 2}

{k: v for d in [dict1, dict2] for k, v in d.items()}
# Out: {'w': 1, 'x': 2, 'y': 2, 'z': 2}

However, dictionary unpacking (PEP 448) may be a preferred.

{**dict1, **dict2}
# Out: {'w': 1, 'x': 2, 'y': 2, 'z': 2}

Note: dictionary comprehensions were added in Python 3.0 and backported to 2.7+, unlike list comprehensions, which were added in 2.0. Versions < 2.7 can use generator expressions and the dict() builtin to simulate the behavior of dictionary comprehensions.

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