Topic 6

Collections and Sequences

 Last Topic

§ introduce new compound data types

• tuples
• lists
§ idea of mutability
§ idea of aliasing
§ idea of cloning

6.0001 LECTURE 5 2
 Today

§ Collections
§ Sets
§ Dictionaries
§ Use of dictionaries to solve problems
§ Sequence
§ Common characteristics of sequences

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 Collection

§ A collection is a group of related values or objects

stored together in a single container
§ You can count the number of items in the collection (using
the len function)
§ You can iterate over its members in a loop
§ You can test whether an item is in a collection (using the
in and not in operator)

§ In some collections, these items are ordered (string, list,

and tuple), and in others (set), items have no fixed order
§ Some collections can be changed (mutable). Other
collections cannot be changed once they are created.4
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 Collections In Python

§ Python defined 4 built-in collection types:

§ Tuple: ordered, immutable, can have duplicates
§ List: ordered, mutable, can have duplicates
§ Set: un-ordered, mutable, no duplicates
§ Dictionary: ordered, mutable, no duplicates

§ String can also be considered as a collection type.

§ In Topic 4 and Topic 5, we have already seen strings,
tuples and lists.
§ In this topic, we will look at sets and dictionaries.
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 Sets

§ Like in mathematics, a set is a collection of unique

items.
§ In Python, a set is a collection of items. These items do
not have a fixed order in the set.
§ Each item only appears in a set once, ie, there cannot
be more than one occurrence of the same item in a set
§ An item in a set cannot be changed, therefore, mutable
objects such as lists, sets and dictionaries cannot be
members of a set
§ However, you can add an new item into a set and you
6.0001 LECTURE 6 can also remove an item from the set. 6
 Define a Set

§ A set literal is defined using curly brackets

fruit = {"apple","banana","mango","cherry"}

§ A set may contain values of different types

myset = {34,"Python",True,12.8}

§ It can even have tuples in a set (because a tuple is

immutable)
s = {"abc",(1,2,3)}

§ While the following definition would cause an error:

s = {"abc",[1,2,3]}
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 Functions for Sets
§ Most functions applicable to tuples and lists are also
applicable to sets
print(len(myset)) # => 4
print(type(myset)) # => <class 'set'>
print(isinstance(myset, set)) # => True
print(sorted(fruit)) # to a new list
# => ['apple','banana','cherry','mango']
marks = {76, 90, 51, 82}
print(min(marks)) # => 51
print(max(marks)) # => 90
print(sum(marks)) # => 299
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 Indexing for a set?

§ As the items in a set do not have fixed order, there is

no index for an individual item of the set.
§ Therefore, we cannot use index to access an item in a
set.
§ To see that the items in a set have no fixed order,
create a small program set_order.py (as below) and
run it several times. You will see the order of items are
not always in the same order in different runs:
# set_order.py
s = { "apple", "banana", "cherry"}
print(s)
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 Indexing for a set?

$ py setOrder.py
{'banana', 'cherry', 'apple'}
$ py setOrder.py
{'cherry', 'banana', 'apple'}
$ py setOrder.py
{'banana', 'apple', 'cherry'}
$

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 Add and Remove Items from Set

§ Set has add and remove methods:

s = {1, 2, 3}
s.add(4) # => {1,2,3,4}
s.remove(3) # => {1,2,4}

§ Example: divide Perth post codes into South of River

and North of River
def perthPostCode(s):
northSet=southSet = set() # empty set
for x in s:
if x >= 6100:
southSet.add(x)
else:
northSet.add(x)
return northSet, southSet

perth = {6008, 6170, 6009, 6051, 6150, 6109}

north, south = perthPostCode(perth)
print("north of river: ", north) # {6008, 6009, 6051}
print("south of river: ", south)
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# {6170, 6150, 6109} 1
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 Set Union and Intersection

§ The union of two sets is a new set containing members of

both sets
s1 = { 1, 2, 3, 'a', 'b'}
s2 = { 'a', 'b', 'c', 1, 2 }
s3 = s1 | s2. # s3 contains elements of s1 and s2
print(s3) # {1,2,3,'a','b','c'}
Same as
s3 = s1.union(s2)
§ The intersection of two sets is a new set containing
members common to both sets
s1 = { 1, 2, 3, 'a', 'b'}
s2 = { 'a', 'b', 'c', 1, 2 }
s3 = s1 & s2 # s3 contains elements common to both s1 and s2
print(s3) # {1,2,'a','b'}
Same as
s3
6.0001 LECTURE 6 = s1.intersection(s2) 1
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 Dictionaries

§ A dictionary in Python is a list of key:value pairs. It is

an extremely useful data structure. It attaches a
unique key to each value, allowing us to access a
value by its key.
§ A dictionary is also known as an associative array,
map (C++ and Java), hash (Perl), table (Lua), object
(JavaScript).
§ In Python, a dictionary is similar to a list: it is mutable
and the items in a dictionary is ordered (since Python
3.7). However, there cannot be duplicates in a
dictionary (no two elements have the same key).
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 Define a Dictionary

§ A dictionary literal is defined using curly brackets,

similar to sets. However, each element must be a
key:value pair.
student = {
"name" : "John",
"major" : "CS",
"age" : 25
"mobile" : "0410342765"
}

§ Since curly brackets are used to define both sets and

dictionaries, the following definition can be confusing:
x = {}
Ø as it could be seen as either an empty set or empty dictionary.
Ø In Python, the above definition is reserved for empty dictionary, not
empty set. To define am empty set, use set constructor instead: 1
6.0001 LECTURE 6 4
x = set()
 Comparison of List and Dictionary
A list A dictionary
0 "John" "name" "John"
1 "CS" "major" "CS"
2 25 "age" 25
3 "0410342765" "mobile" "0410342765"
… … … …

§ List: use the index to access a list element

Ø The index must be an integer starting from 0. The index only tells you the
position of the value in the list, not the nature of the value (eg, whether it
is a student's name or his age)

§ Dictionary: use the key to access a dictionary element

Ø The key reflects the nature of the value, eg, using the key name to access
the student's name and use the key age to access the student's 1age.
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 Access a Dictionary

§ Use the key to access the value

print("Student name: " + student['name'])
print("Student age: " + student['age'])

§ As a dictionary is an object, it has many built-in

methods. Another way to access the value is by using
the get method
print("Student name: " + student.get('name'))
print("Student age: " + student.get('age'))

§ Obtain all keys

print(student.keys()) # ["name", "major", "age", "mobile"]

§ Obtain all values

print(student.values()) # ["John", "CS", 25, "0410342765"]
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 Add and Remove Items

§ To add a new item (a key:value pair), use a new key

student['gender'] = 'Male' # 'gender" is the key
student['address'] = '20 South St, Murdoch'

§ Alternatively, one may use update method to add one

or more new items to a dictionary
x = {'gender':'Male', 'address':'20 South St, Murdoch'}
student.update(x)

§ To remove an item from the dictionary and return it

x = student.pop['address']
print('address is %s" %x) # '20 South St, Murdoch'

§ To pop off the last item from the dictionary

x = student.popitem() 1
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 Delete Items in a Collection

§ To delete an item with a given key from the dictionary

del student['gender']

§ del is not a function or method. It is a statement. It

can be used to delete an item from a list as well
student = [ 'John', 'CS', 25 ]
del student[1] # remove 'CS' from the list

§ del can be used to delete an entire collection.

a = { 1, 2, 3 }
b = [ "abc", "xy" ]
c = ( 10.5, "foo", True )
d = { 'a' : 1, 'b' : 2 }
del a, b, c, d
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 Delete Unneeded Objects

§ An object such as a string, a list, a dictionary, etc, can

take up a lot of system resources (memory space and
computer processing time). When an object is no
longer needed, you should delete it to save the system
resources.
x = 10
y = "Hello, world!"
del x, y

§ Once deleted, an object is completely removed from

your process (running program). Any attempt to use it
will generate an error.
§ However, you can always define a new variable using
the variable name that has been deleted.
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 Loop through a Dictionary

§ You can loop through a dictionary using its keys,

values, and both keys and values
grades = { 'HD':4, 'D':10, 'C':23, 'P':34, 'N':10 }
numStudents = 0
for x in grades.values():
numStudents += x
print("Total number of students is ", numStudents)

# print the grade distributions

for x in grades.keys():
print("%s : %0.1f " %(x, grades[x]/numStudents * 100))

# alternatively
for k,v in grades.items():
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print("%s : %0.1f " %(k, v/numStudents * 100))
 Dictionary Alias and Clone

§ In Topic 5, we discussed object aliasing and cloning

Ø An alias is like to give a nickname to a variable, both the
original variable and the new variable are in fact represent
the same object.
Ø While a clone of an object is a separate copy of the original
object. The original variable and the new variable represent
two different objects, albeit the new objects have the same
initial value as the original object.
john = { 'name':'John', 'age':25 }
david = john # david is an alias of john
david['name'] = 'David' # john's name is also changed to David.

§ To create a clone of a dictionary, use copy method

peter = john.copy() # peter is a clone of john
peter['name'] = 'Peter' # this change would not affect
6.0001 LECTURE 6
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john
 Sequence Types

§ In Python, a sequence is a type of collection that holds

an ordered sequence of values. Each value is
identified by an index.
§ We have already seen some of the sequence types
Ø String, such as "Python"
Ø Tuple, such as ("Apple", "Cherry", "Gooseberry")
Ø List, such as ["abc", 1, 3.1415, True]
Ø Range, is a sequence of numbers, such as range(1,10,2)
=> 1,3,5,7,9

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 Common Characteristics of
Sequences
§ Sequence types share many common operations and
characteristics (with exceptions)
Ø Indexing
Ø Slicing
Ø Repetition, eg, "abc"*3 => "abcabcabc"
Ø Length: such as len([1,2,3,4,5]) => 5
Ø Membership: in operation and not in operator
Ø Iteration: as in the for loop
§ Note, some of sequences are mutable, such as lists,
others are immutable, such as strings, tuples and
ranges
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 Sequence: indexing

§ Each member of a sequence is accessible using its

index. The index always starts from 0.
Ø String
s = "Python is fun!"
s[0] # 'P'
s.index("fun") # 10
Ø Tuple
t = ("Apple", "Cherry", "Gooseberry")
t[2] # "Gooseberry"
t.index("Cherry") # 1
Ø List
l = [1, "ICT582", 3.14, True]
l[1] # "ICT582"
l.index(3.14) # 2

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 Sequence: indexing
Ø Range
r = range(10) # 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
r[2] # 2
r.index(4) # 4

r2 = range(1,10,2) # 1,3,5,7,9
r2[2] # 5
r2.index(5) # 2

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 Sequence: slicing

§ The same sequence slicing operations apply to all

sequence types.
Ø String
s = "Python is fun!"
fun = s[10:] # 'fun!'
Ø Tuple
t = ("Apple", "Cherry", "Gooseberry")
t[::2] # ("Apple", "Gooseberry")
Ø List
l = [1, "ICT582", 3.14, True]
l[1::2] # ["ICT582", True]
Ø Range
r = range(10) # 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
list(r[::-1]) # [9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0]
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 Sequence: concatenation

§ The same sequence slicing operations apply to all

sequence types (except ranges).
Ø String
s = "Python"
s + " is fun!" # 'Python is fun!'
Ø Tuple
t1 = ("Apple", "Cherry")
t2 = ("Orange", "Mango")
t1 + t2 #("Apple","Cherry","Orange","Mango")
Ø List
l1 = ["ICT582", "ICT580"
l2 = ["ICT375", ICT286"]
l1 + l2 # ["ICT582","ICT580","ICT375",ICT286"]
Ø Range
Concatenation operation doesn’t apply to
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ranges 7
 Sequence: repetition

§ A sequence, except ranges, can be repeated many

times using operator *
Ø String
s = "Python!"
s*3 # '"Python!Python!Python!"
Ø Tuple
t = (1,2,3)
t*3 # (1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3)
Ø List
l = ['a','b','c']
l*2 # ['a','b','c','a','b','c']
Ø Range
Repetition operation doesn’t apply to ranges

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 Sequence: length

§ The length function len applies to all sequences

Ø String
s = "Python!"
len(s) # 7
Ø Tuple
t = (1,2,3)
len(t) # 3
Ø List
l = ['a','b','c']
len(l) # 3
Ø Range
r = range(1,10,2) # 1,3,5,7,9
len(r) # 5

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 Sequence: membership

§ Use membership operators in and not in to

determine whether a value is in the sequence or not
Ø String
s = "Python!"
'P' in s # True
"on" in s # True
Ø Tuple
t = (1,2,3)
2 not in t # False
Ø List
l = ['a','b','c']
'x' in l # False
Ø Range
r = range(1,10,2) # 1,3,5,7,9
3 in r # True 3
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 Sequence: iterable

§ You can iterate over the elements in any sequence in

a for loop
for element in sequence:
statement
. . . . . .
statement

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 Example: Word Frequency

def lyrics_to_frequencies(lyrics):
myDict = {}
for word in lyrics:
if word in myDict:
myDict[word] += 1
else:
myDict[word] = 1
return myDict

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 Example: Word Frequency

def most_common_words(freqs):
values = freqs.values()
best = max(values)
words = []
for k in freqs:
if freqs[k] == best:
words.append(k)
return (words, best)

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 Example: Word Frequency

def words_often(freqs, minTimes):

result = []
done = False
while not done:
temp = most_common_words(freqs)
if temp[1] >= minTimes:
result.append(temp)
for w in temp[0]:
del(freqs[w])
else:
done = True
return result

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 Example: Word Frequency

beatles = '''
Love, love me do Love, love me do
You know I love you You know I love you
I'll always be true I'll always be true
So please, love me do So please, love me do
Whoa, love me do Whoa, love me do

Love, love me do Love, love me do

You know I love you You know I love you
I'll always be true I'll always be true
So please, love me do So please, love me do
Whoa, love me do Whoa, love me do
Yeah, love me do
Someone to love Whoa, oh, love me do
Somebody new '''
Someone to love
Someone like you

wordList = beatles.split()
wordFreq = lyrics_to_frequencies(wordList)
print(words_often(wordFreq, 5))
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 Example: Word Frequency

hong$ py word_freq.py
[(['love'], 20), (['me', 'do'], 14), (['you', 'Whoa,'], 5)]
hong$

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 References

§ Python data structures:

https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html
§ The Python Tutorial: https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/
§ W3School Python Tutorial
https://www.w3schools.com/python/
§ Python 3 documentation https://docs.python.org/3/

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