Python Crash CoursePython Crash CourseContainersContainers
3rd year Bachelors
V1.0
dd 03-09-2013
Hour 3
Introduction to language - containersIntroduction to language - containers
Container data types in Python are types whose instances are capable of storing other objects. Some of the fundamental built-in container objects include:•lists – the most popular container data type in python; can store any number of any objects.•tuples – similar to list, yet once created are immutable,•sets – can store only unique elements,•bytes – immutable sequence of integers in the range 0 <= x < 256,•bytearray – like bytes, but mutable,•dictionary – also known as associative arrays. They contain mapping of keys into value,•str – string, a sequence of unicode characters,•range – a sequence of numbers — more precisely a list containing arithmetic progressions•array.array – present in the array module. Similar to list, yet during the construction it is restricted to holding a specific data type,
Introduction to language - containersIntroduction to language - containers
Data type Mutable Ordered Literal example Constructor
Sequence types
list yes yes [1,2,3] list()
tuple no yes (1,2,3) tuple()
str no yes “text” / ‘text’ str()
range no yes – range()
bytes no yes b’abcde’ / b”abc” bytes()
bytearray yes yes – bytearray()
array * yes yes – array.array()
Set types
set yes no {1,2,3} set()
frozenset no no – frozenset()
Mapping types
dict yes no {“key1″: “val”, “key2″: “val”} dict()
Containers – Mutable, Immutable, Containers – Mutable, Immutable, HashableHashable
Containers in Python can be either mutable or immutable. The fact that a container object is immutable doesn’t always mean that the objects it holds are also immutable (e.g. an immutable tuple holding mutable lists). However, container objects are fully immutable only if the object itself, and the objects it contains are recursively immutable. Recursively immutable objects may be hashable. This is important as only hashable objects can be used in a mapping container object (see below) as keys.All of Python’s immutable built-in objects are hashable, while no mutable containers (such as lists or dictionaries) are.Examples of mutable containers include:•list,•set,•dictionary,•bytearray•array
Examples of immutable containers include:•string,•frozenset,•tuple,•bytesThe main implication of the mutable/immutable distinction and hashability is that not all container object can store all other container objects, in particular:•sets can store only hashable object (each object in set has to have a unique hash — sets do not store duplicate objects, as opposed to e.g. lists or tuples)•dictionaries can have only hashable objects as keys
Containers – Ordered or UnorderedContainers – Ordered or Unordered
Container object can store their content in either an ordered or unordered manner. Order, or lack of thereof, is unrelated to the mutability of objects. This means that both mutable and immutable objects can be either ordered or unordered.
Examples of ordered containers include:•list,•string,•tuple,•bytes,•bytearrays,•array
Examples of unordered containers include:•dictionary,•set,•frozenset.
Containers - ListsContainers - Lists
Lists:>>> a = [1, 2, 4, 8, 16] # list of ints
>>> c = [4, 'candles', 4.0, 'handles'] # can mix types
>>> c[1]
'candles'
>>> c[2] = 'knife'
>>> c[-1] # negative indices count from end
'handles'
>>> c[1:3] # slicing
['candles', 'knife']
>>> c[2:] # omitting defaults to start or end
['knife', 'handles']
>>> c[0:4:2] # variable stride (could just write c[::2])
[4, 'knife']
>>> a + c # concatenate
[1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 4, 'candles', 'knife', 'handles']
>>> len(a)
5
Lists are the most versatile of Python's compound data types. A list contains items separated by commas and enclosed within square brackets ([]). To some extent, lists are similar to arrays in C. One difference between them is that all the items belonging to a list can be of different data type. The values stored in a list can be accessed using the slice operator ( [ ] and [ : ] ) with indexes starting at 0 in the beginning of the list and working their way to end-1.The plus ( + ) sign is the list concatenation operator, and the asterisk ( * ) is the repetition operator.
Lists MethodsLists Methods
SN Function with Description
1 cmp(list1, list2)Compares elements of both lists.
2 len(list)Gives the total length of the list.
3 max(list)Returns item from the list with max value.
4 min(list)Returns item from the list with min value.
5 list(seq)Converts a tuple into list.
SN Methods with Description
1 list.append(obj)Appends object obj to list
2 list.count(obj)Returns count of how many times obj occurs in list
3 list.extend(seq)Appends the contents of seq to list
4 list.index(obj)Returns the lowest index in list that obj appears
5 list.insert(index, obj)Inserts object obj into list at offset index
6 list.pop(obj=list[-1])Removes and returns last object or obj from list
7 list.remove(obj)Removes object obj from list
8 list.reverse()Reverses objects of list in place
9 list.sort([func])Sorts objects of list, use compare func if given
List operationsList operations
list1 = ['physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000]
print list1
del list1[2]
print "After deleting value at index 2 : "
print list1
L = [] #empty list
L = list()
A = B = [] # both names will point to the same list
A = []
B = A # both names will point to the same list
A = []; B = [] # independent lists
for item in L:
print item
for index, item in enumerate(L):
print index, item
i = iter(L)
item = i.next() # fetch first value
item = i.next() # fetch second value
stack = []
stack.append(object) # push
object = stack.pop() # pop from end
queue = []
queue.append(object) # push
object = queue.pop(0) # pop from beginning
Containers - TuplesContainers - Tuples
Tuples:>>> q = (1, 2, 4, 8, 16) # tuple of ints
>>> r = (4, 'candles', 4.0, 'handles') # can mix types
>>> s = ('lonely',) # singleton
>>> t = () # empty
>>> r[1]
'candles'
>>> r[2] = 'knife' # cannot change tuples
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment
>>> u = 3, 2, 1 # parentheses not necessary
>>> v, w = 'this', 'that'
>>> v
'this'
>>> w
'that'
A tuple is another sequence data type that is similar to the list. A tuple consists of a number of values separated by commas. Unlike lists, however, tuples are enclosed within parentheses. The main differences between lists and tuples are: Lists are enclosed in brackets ( [ ] ), and their elements and size can be changed, while tuples are enclosed in parentheses ( ( ) ) and cannot be updated. Tuples can be thought of as read-only lists.
Tuple methodsTuple methods
SN Function with Description
1 cmp(tuple1, tuple2)Compares elements of both tuples.
2 len(tuple)Gives the total length of the tuple.
3 max(tuple)Returns item from the tuple with max value.
4 min(tuple)Returns item from the tuple with min value.
5 tuple(seq)Converts a list into tuple.
Containers - DictionariesContainers - Dictionaries
Dictionaries:>>> a = {'eyecolour': 'blue', 'height': 152.0,
42: 'the answer'}
>>> a['age'] = 28
>>> a
{42: 'the answer', 'age': 28, 'eyecolour': 'blue', 'height': 152.0}
>>> del(a['height'])
>>> a
{42: 'the answer', 'age': 28, 'eyecolour': 'blue'}
>>> b = {}
>>> b['hello'] = 'Hi! '
>>> a.keys()
[42, 'age’, 'eyecolour’]
>>> a.values()
['the answer', 28, 'blue']
Python 's dictionaries are hash table type. They work like associative arrays or hashes found in Perl and consist of key-value pairs. Keys can be almost any Python type, but are usually numbers or strings. Values, on the other hand, can be any arbitrary Python object. Dictionaries are enclosed by curly braces ( { } ) and values can be assigned and accessed using square braces ( [] ).
Dictionary useDictionary use
>>> colors = { "blue": (0x30,0x30,0xff), "green": (0x30,0xff,0x97),
... "red": (0xff,0x30,0x97), "yellow": (0xff,0xff,0x30) }
>>> for c in colors:
... print c, colors[c]
for key, value in someDictionary.items():
# process key and value
print key, "=", value
for value in someDictionary.values():
# process the value
>>> i = { "two":2, "three":3, "quatro":4 }
>>> del i["quatro"]
>>> i
{'two': 2, 'three': 3}
>>> i = { "two":2, "three":3, "quatro":4 }
>>> i.pop("quatro")
4
>>> i
{'two': 2, 'three': 3}
Dictionary methodsDictionary methods
SN Function with Description
1 cmp(dict1, dict2)Compares elements of both dict.
2 len(dict)Gives the total length of the dictionary. This would be equal to the number of items in the dictionary.
3 str(dict)Produces a printable string representation of a dictionary
4 type(variable)Returns the type of the passed variable. If passed variable is dictionary then it would return a dictionary type.
SN Methods with Description
1 dict.clear()Removes all elements of dictionary dict
2 dict.copy()Returns a shallow copy of dictionary dict
2 dict.fromkeys()Create a new dictionary with keys from seq and values set to value.
3 dict.get(key, default=None)For key key, returns value or default if key not in dictionary
4 dict.has_key(key)Returns true if key in dictionary dict, false otherwise
5 dict.items()Returns a list of dict's (key, value) tuple pairs
6 dict.keys()Returns list of dictionary dict's keys
7 dict.setdefault(key, default=None)Similar to get(), but will set dict[key]=default if key is not already in dict
8 dict.update(dict2)Adds dictionary dict2's key-values pairs to dict
9 dict.values()Returns list of dictionary dict2's values
Type ConversionsType Conversions
Function Descriptionint(x [,base]) Converts x to an integer. base specifies the base if x is a string.
long(x [,base] ) Converts x to a long integer. base specifies the base if x is a string.float(x) Converts x to a floating-point number.
complex(real [,imag]) Creates a complex number.str(x) Converts object x to a string representation.
repr(x) Converts object x to an expression string.eval(str) Evaluates a string and returns an object.
tuple(s) Converts s to a tuple.list(s) Converts s to a list.set(s) Converts s to a set.dict(d) Creates a dictionary. d must be a sequence of (key,value) tuples.
frozenset(s) Converts s to a frozen set.chr(x) Converts an integer to a character.unichr(x) Converts an integer to a Unicode character.
ord(x) Converts a single character to its integer value.
hex(x) Converts an integer to a hexadecimal string.oct(x) Converts an integer to an octal string.
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