Dictionaries in Python

Dictionaries are another powerful data structure in Python. They allow you to store data in key-value pairs, meaning you can associate a value with a specific key. This makes dictionaries incredibly useful for tasks where you need to look up values quickly.

Creating a Dictionary

You can create a dictionary using curly braces {}, where each key is paired with a value using a colon:

my_dict = {
    "name": "Alice",
    "age": 25,
    "city": "New York"
}

Accessing Values in a Dictionary

To access a value in a dictionary, you use the key inside square brackets:

print(my_dict["name"])  # Outputs: Alice

Modifying a Dictionary

Like lists, dictionaries are mutable, so you can add, modify, or remove key-value pairs:

my_dict["age"] = 26  # Update the value of "age"
my_dict["email"] = "alice@example.com"  # Add a new key-value pair
del my_dict["city"]  # Remove the key "city" and its value

Looping Through a Dictionary

You can also loop through dictionaries to access keys and values:

for key, value in my_dict.items():
    print(key, ":", value)