Creating 2D dictionary in Python

Question

I have a list of details from an output for "set1" which are like "name", "place", "animal", "thing" and a "set2" with the same details.

I want to create a dictionary with dict_names[setx]['name']... etc On these lines.

Is that the best way to do it? If not how do I do it?

I am not sure how 2D works in dictionary.. Any pointers?

It would help to give a more specific and complete example. What's in `setx`, and what do you want `dict_names[setx]['name']` to return? — abarnert, Sep 18 '14 at 23:56

Cory Kramer · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-10T20:46:00.110

29

It would have the following syntax

dict_names = {
    'd1': {
        'name': 'bob',
        'place': 'lawn',
        'animal': 'man'
    },
    'd2': {
        'name': 'spot',
        'place': 'bed',
        'animal': 'dog'
    }
}

You can then look things up like

>>> dict_names['d1']['name']
'bob'

To assign a new inner dict

dict_names['d1'] = {'name': 'bob', 'place': 'lawn', 'animal': 'man'}

To assign a specific value to an inner dict

dict_names['d1']['name'] = 'fred'

edited Jan 10 '22 at 20:46

answered Sep 18 '14 at 23:55

Cory Kramer

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I have {'name':'bob', 'place':'lawn', 'animal':'man'} part created but how do I assign it as key to d1? – user2921139 Sep 19 '14 at 00:05
2

`dict_names['d1'] = {'name':'bob', 'place':'lawn', 'animal':'man'}` – Cory Kramer Sep 19 '14 at 00:09
1

so this is like a regular 1D dictionary. – user2921139 Sep 19 '14 at 00:30
Sorry - i followed the entire thing. Just took me a few minutes, oddly even though i understand the dictionary concept clearly. The big structures kind of scare me I think! – user2921139 Sep 19 '14 at 00:47
How about the case when I need to get the top-level both by the first and second key - for instance, pull all the objects that have a "name" tag in them? – chiffa Mar 25 '17 at 14:57
Good answer! Is there a way we could do the above in a for loop; i.e. say there're k number of dictionaries with the same keys but different features. I'd like to combine them into a 2d dictionary in a for loop. I've tried initializing an empty dictionary and append. But that didn't work. Any help would be appreciated! – Noprogexprnce mathmtcn Mar 14 '18 at 19:03

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

3

Something like this would work:

set1 = {
     'name': 'Michael',
     'place': 'London',
     ...
     }
# same for set2

d = dict()
d['set1'] = set1
d['set2'] = set2

Then you can do:

d['set1']['name']

etc. It is better to think about it as a nested structure (instead of a 2D matrix):

{
 'set1': {
         'name': 'Michael',
         'place': 'London',
         ...
         }
 'set2': {
         'name': 'Michael',
         'place': 'London',
         ...
         }
}

Take a look here for an easy way to visualize nested dictionaries.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

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answered Sep 18 '14 at 23:56

elyase

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this saves the repeated values – numerah Jan 21 '15 at 06:28

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 02 '20 at 07:25

3

Something like this should work.

dictionary = dict()
dictionary[1] = dict()
dictionary[1][1] = 3
print(dictionary[1][1])

You can extend it to higher dimensions as well.

answered Mar 02 '20 at 07:25

shamiul97

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Creating 2D dictionary in Python

3 Answers3

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