TK2053

PROGRAMMING PARADIGM
Script Programming with Python

- Data Structures
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Object
Recall (Lecture slide 3):

• An object is an entity that has a type, such as string or

integer
• Determines what can be done with the data
Example the object has the type int, it can be added to another int.

• Determines if the data value can be changed (mutable) or is

constant (immutable)
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Object
Dynamically typed
keeps track of types for you automatically instead of
requiring declaration code

Strongly typed : type of an object does not change, even if

its value is mutable

Fundamentals of Python: From First Programs Through Data Structures

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Mutable vs Immutable
Think of an object as a box

Mutable
• An open box, not only can we see the value inside, we
can also change it. BUT we can not change its type.

Immutable
• A closed box with a clear window, we can see the value
but we can not change it.
• When value change, Python will designate a new memory
location to hold the new value
• Variable will reference that new object

Introducing Python, O’Reilly Media, page 16

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Mutable vs Immutable

Source: Mutable vs Immutable Objects in Python, https://medium.com/@meghamohan/mutable-and-immutable-side-of-python-c2145cf72747

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Mutable vs Immutable

List

Integer

String

Tuple

Fundamentals of Python: From First Programs Through Data Structures

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Mutable vs Immutable

Fundamentals of Python: From First Programs Through Data Structures

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List
A list is an ordered sequence of Python objects
• Objects can be of any type
• Objects do not have to all be the same type.

* If you need to keep track of unique values and do not care about order, use set.
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List – Creating a list

• Can be made with zero or more elements, separated by
commas

• Create with []

Does not need to be unique

• Create an empty list with list()
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List – Convert other Data Types to List

• list() can be used to convert other data types to lists.

• split() can be used to chop a string into a list of substrings

*to combine, use join()
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List – Extracting Item

To extract a single value from a list, we can specify its offset
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List –Modifying Item

To modify a single value from a list by its offset

Since lists are mutable objects, fruits_2 will points to the same memory
location as fruits_1. Any changes of values in fruits_2 will be reflected in
fruits_1 as well.
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List –Modifying Item

To ensure values in the original list is unchanged

Besides list() conversion function, we can also use the

- The list copy() function
- The list slice[:]

to have an independent fresh list.

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List – Using Slice

Just like string, we can extract a subsequence of a list by
using a slice
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List – Nested List

List can contain elements of different types, including other
lists
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List – Operations
Example of additional list operations
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List – Operations
Example of additional list operations
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Tuples
• Tuples (similar to lists), are sequences of arbitrary items.

• Difference with lists, tuples are immutable

• Can not add, delete or change items after the tuple is defined
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Tuples – Creating a Tuple

• To create an empty tuples

• To create a tuple with one or more elements

You do not need parentheses when creating tuple – it is the trailing commas that define a tuple.
However using parentheses to enclose value can be useful to help make tuple more visible.

• tuple() conversion function can make tuples from other objects

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Tuples – Creating a Tuple

• To assign multiple variables to elements of tuple (i.e. tuple unpacking)

• Using tuple to exchange values in one statement

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Tuples vs Lists
We can always use tuple in place of lists, but they have
fewer functions (i.e. no append(), insert() and etc. because
they are immutable)

- Tuple use less space

- Can not clobber tuple items by mistake
- Can use tuples as dictionary keys (see next section)
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Dictionaries
• Dictionary (similar to lists), but
• The order of items does not matter
• Elements in dictionary can not be selected by an offset. Need to
specify unique key. The key is often a string, but can be any
immutable types (i.e. Boolean, integer, float, tuple, and etc.)

• Dictionaries are mutable, so we can add, delete and

change their key-value elements.
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Dictionaries – creating a dict

• To create a dictionary, place curly brackets ({ }) around comma-
separated key:value pairs

Empty dictionary with no keys or values

A dictionary with key:value pairs

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Dictionaries – Convert to dict

• Can use dict() function to convert two-value sequences
(lists or tuples) into a dictionary
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Dictionaries – Add or Change item

• Adding an item to a dictionary is easy. Just refer to the
item by its key and assign a value.

* Note that dictionary keys must be unique.

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Dictionaries – Add or Change item

• To change an item in the dictionary

By using the same key (‘Gilliam’), we replace the original value ‘Gerry’ with ‘Terry’.
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Dictionaries – Get an item by [key]

• This is them most common use of a dictionary. We specify
the dictionary and key to get the corresponding value
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Dictionaries – Get an item by [key]

• This is them most common use of a dictionary. We specify
the dictionary and key to get the corresponding value

• If the key is not present, you will get an exception. To

avoid this, always check the availability of the key
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Dictionaries – Get an item by [key]

• To prevent exception, can also use special dictionary get()
function
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Dictionaries – Get all keys or values

• Use keys() to get all keys and values() to get all values in a
dictionary
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Dictionaries – Get all key-Value Pairs

• Use items() function to get all key-value pairs
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Set
• Set (similar to dictionaries), but with its values thrown
away leaving only the keys.

• The keys for set must be unique.

• Same concept in Discrete Mathematics

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Set – Create a Set

• To create a set, we can use the set() function or enclose
one or more comma-separated values in curly brackets
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Set – Convert to Set

• We can create a set from list, string, tuple or dictionary,
discarding any duplicate values
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Set – Test for Value

Example:
Given a dictionary called drinks

Which drinks contain vodka?

Output:
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Set – Test for Value

Example:
Given a dictionary called drinks

Which drinks contain vodka but no vermouth and cream?

Output:
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Set – Test for Value

Example:
Given a dictionary called drinks

To save the ingredient sets for drink in variable,

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Set – Set Operators

Given a test sets

Intersection of the set with special punctuation symbol & or the set
intersection() function
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Set – Set Operators

Given a test sets

Union of the set by using | or the set union() function

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Set – Set Operators

Given a test sets

Difference of the set by using - or the set difference() function

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Set – Set Operators

Besides the common set operations (i.e. union, intersection and
difference), the less common operations are

• Exclusive or using ^ or symmetric_difference()

• Subset of another set by using <= or issubset()
• Proper subset by using <
• Superset by using >= or issuperset()
• Proper superset by using >

*A superset is the opposite of a subset (all members of the second set are also members of the first).
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Compare Data Structures

Review on creating list, tuple, dictionary

For the list and tuple, the value between the square brackets is an integer
offset. For the dictionary, it’s a key. For all three, the result is a value.
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Bigger Data Structures

Given 3 lists

Make a tuple containing the lists

Or make a list containing the lists

Or dictionary of lists (* keys need to be immutable)

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Hands-on Activities
• Store the names of a few of your friends in a list called names. Print a message to
them. The text of each message should be the same but each message should be
personalized with the person’s name.

• Use a dictionary to store information about a person you know. Store their first name,
last name, age, and the city in which they live. You should have keys such as
first_name, last_name, age, and city. Print each piece of information stored in your
dictionary.