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:
swapped = {v: k for k, v in my_dict.items()}
swapped = dict((v, k) for k, v in my_dict.iteritems())
swapped = dict(zip(my_dict.values(), my_dict))
swapped = dict(zip(my_dict.values(), my_dict.keys()))
swapped = dict(map(reversed, my_dict.items()))
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.