Dictionaries & sets
Key–value maps, uniqueness, counting, grouping, and fast lookups.
How to Check if a Set is a Subset in Python
Check whether one set contains all elements of another set using the issubset method.
def is_subset(allowed_set, check_set):
"""
Check if check_set is a subset of allowed_set.
Returns True if all elements of check_set are in allowed_set, otherwise False.
"""
return check_set.issubset(allowed_set)
if __name__ == "__main__":
# Example usage
allowed = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
valid…How to Compute Set Union of Tags from Multiple Items in Python
Collect all unique tags from a list of dictionaries using set union with update() in Python.
items = [
{"id": 1, "tags": {"python", "web"}},
{"id": 2, "tags": {"web", "api", "sql"}},
{"id": 3, "tags": {"python", "data"}},
]
def get_union_of_tags(item_list):
all_tags = set()
for item in item_list:
all_tags.update(item["tags"])
return all_tags
if __name__ == "__main__":
u…How to Create a Dict from Two Parallel Lists in Python (zip)
Build a dictionary by pairing elements from two parallel lists using Python's built-in zip function and dict constructor.
keys = ["name", "age", "city"]
values = ["Alice", 30, "New York"]
result = dict(zip(keys, values))
print(result)How to Find Symmetric Difference Between Two Python Sets
Compute elements unique to each set and build a flag dictionary showing membership across two Python sets.
def symmetric_difference_with_flags(set_a, set_b):
"""Return elements in either set but not both, grouped by which set they came from."""
only_in_a = set_a - set_b
only_in_b = set_b - set_a
print(f"Only in A: {only_in_a}")
print(f"Only in B: {only_in_b}")
print(f"Symmetric difference: {onl…How to Normalize Data in Python with Dictionaries and Sets
Normalize a list of dicts by keeping selected keys, stripping/lowercasing strings, and extracting unique sorted values using set comprehension.
def normalize_data(data, keys):
"""
Normalize a list of dictionaries by keeping only specified keys
and converting values to proper types.
"""
normalized = []
for item in data:
clean_item = {}
for key in keys:
value = item.get(key)
if isinstance(value, st…How to Pickle a Python Dict and Load It Back
Save a dictionary to a binary file with pickle.dump() and reload it with pickle.load(), showing the round trip and type preservation.
import pickle
data = {"name": "Alice", "scores": [87, 92, 95], "active": True}
print("Original dict:", data)
with open("safe_demo.pkl", "wb") as f:
pickle.dump(data, f)
with open("safe_demo.pkl", "rb") as f:
loaded = pickle.load(f)
print("Loaded dict:", loaded)
print("Type:", type(loaded).__name__)
print(…How to Use ChainMap for Layered Config Lookup in Python
This code demonstrates using collections.ChainMap to combine multiple dictionaries into a single layered lookup, where earlier maps override later ones.
from collections import ChainMap
defaults = {"theme": "light", "lang": "en", "debug": False}
user = {"lang": "de", "auto_save": True}
runtime = {"debug": True}
config = ChainMap(runtime, user, defaults)
if __name__ == "__main__":
print("theme:", config["theme"])
print("lang:", config["lang"])
print("deb…How to merge dictionaries and sets in Python
Merges multiple dictionaries with the ** unpacking operator and combines sets using union operations into a single structure.
def merge_dictionaries_and_sets(school_dict, teacher_dict, course_dict, student_sets):
"""
Merges multiple dictionaries and sets into a single combined structure.
Demonstrates dict unpacking and set union operations.
"""
# Merge all dictionaries using the unpacking operator (Python 3.9+)
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Dictionaries & sets — Python code examples
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