Python Sort Dictionary: Don’t Miss To Check The Details

python sort dictionary

Python is indeed one of the top languages in 2022. That is why many students around the world take more interest in learning it. But there are some queries that people regularly ask. One such query is the Python sort dictionary. The Python dictionary is just an unsorted list of key-value pairs by default. In Python, you may occasionally need to sort the dictionary by key. 

Therefore, in today’s article, we will be telling you some ways to do it. Moreover, we will also discuss about how to implement a Python sort dictionary using the key. Furthermore, these methods will surely help you solve your problems. So keep reading this blog to get the best information related to the Python programming sort dictionary.

Let’s start with this article.

What exactly is the Python Dictionary?

In Python, a dictionary is amongst the most significant data types. The Python dictionary also holds unordered groupings of items, which is why the keys and values cannot be sorted.

In Python, dictionaries are generated using key-value pairs, in which the value can be also accessed by the associated key.

What’s the point of Python Sort dictionary?

  1. When dealing with any dataset, sorting benefits effective analysis.
  1. Moreover, a sorted dictionary allows for better learning and clarity when performing operations.
  1. When you’re creating REST APIs as a developer, the clients or someone (who consumes your API) will expect the key in any response body to be sorted. Just before the response returns, you must also sort your Python dictionary key.
  1. Because a dictionary has an O(1) search complexity versus an O(n) search time complexity, it is a possible option wherever it is required.

What is the most useful approach for sorting a dictionary?

  1. Values-based sorting
  2. Keys-based sorting
  3. Also, Reversing the order of the sorted items
  4. Algorithms for custom sorting – string, numeric

How to implement a Python sort dictionary using the key?

To arrange the programming Python dictionary, we’ll apply the Python sorted() function. The sorted () method is a Python built-in function. It also returns a new list with all the elements from an iterable sorted in ascending order. It’s also not really what we want. Sometimes we need keys sorted, while other times we need values sorted.

Python sort dictionary by key

You might sometimes need to see your dictionary values in ascending or alphabetical order. 

example_values = {4:78 , 2: 100, 5: 50, 1: 125}
for i in sorted(example_values.keys()) : 
      		print(i,example_values[i])

Result: 1 125

2 100

4 78

5 50

The keys() function here returned an iterator across the keys of the dictionary. We can also use the Sorted() function for sorting the list of keys that we need to print dictionary keys and values.

  1. Dictionary Comprehension is a one-line Python script that creates and initializes dictionaries in a compact and memory-efficient manner. It is also divided into two sections: expression and context. The context also uses a single-line for loop to loop over an iterable and determine which (key, value) pairs should be included in the new dictionary. 
positions = {
  	 	  'Bob': 2,
  'Alice': 4,
  'Sharon': 5,
  'Dwyane': 1,
  'John': 3
}
print({k: v for k, v in sorted(positions.items(), key=lambda item: item[1])})

Result: {‘Dwyane’: 1, ‘Bob’: 2, ‘John’: 3, ‘Alice’: 4, ‘Sharon’: 5}

  1. The OrderedDict() subclass can also be used.

A dictionary subclass called OrderedDict remembers the sequence in which keys were first placed. Also, the only change between dict() and OrderedDict() is that OrderedDict keeps the key order.

from collections import OrderedDict
 
positions = {
  'Dwyane': 1,  
  'Alice': 4,
  'Bob': 2,
  'Sharon': 5,
  'John': 3
}
 
a = OrderedDict(sorted(positions.items(), key=lambda x: x[1]))
for key,value in a.items():
print(key, value)

Result: Dwyane 1

Bob 2

John 3

Alice 4

Sharon 5

  1. Using the itemgetter() function while using the sorted() method. 

itemgetter() can also be used to provide a function for collecting data from the object’s first dimension. It isn’t a numerical value. It must also react to a specified object (dictionary, list, primitive, etc)

Also, you can’t use key=a[x][1] since Python doesn’t know what x is. You could instead have a lambda function.

from operator import itemgetter
positions = {
  'Alice': 4,
  	  'Bob': 2,
  'Dwyane': 1,
  'Sharon': 5,
  'John': 3
}
y = sorted(positions.items(), key=itemgetter(1))
print(dict(y))

Result: {‘Dwyane’: 1, ‘Bob’: 2, ‘John’: 3, ‘Alice’: 4, ‘Sharon’: 5}

  1. In Python, the counter is a subclass of dict that is specialized to measuring hashable items. It’s also a dictionary that uses keys to hold objects and counts to hold values. Moreover, you can normally supply a series or iterable of hashable objects as an input to the class’s function Object() { [native code] } to count with Counter.
from collections import Counter
positions = {
  'Bob': 2,
  'Dwyane': 1,
  'Sharon': 5,
  'Alice': 4,
  'John': 3
}
y = dict(Counter(positions).most_common())
print(y)

Result: {‘Sharon’: 5, ‘Alice’: 4, ‘John’: 3, ‘Bob’: 2, ‘Dwyane’: 1}

Let’s wrap it up!

In today’s article, we learn Python sort dictionary. Moreover, we saw what dictionaries are in Python? Also, why do we need to sort the dictionaries in Python? And what are the ways to sort the dictionaries in the Python programming language

Today we also saw the methods of Python sort dictionary by using the keys. Therefore, we hope you liked this article. If you did then you can write a positive comment. but if you have any queries related to this, please write to us. We also always seem delighted to help you with any questions. Please leave your respective suggestions if you have.

Also, read our other blog that will surely help you learn about different programming languages. These will also keep you from enhancing your subject knowledge. This further supports you in your exams, by which you will surely get an A+ grade or score 90+ marks in your subjective exams. Apart from this, test yourself by practicing the above examples.