Today we’ll introduce a new compound data type called the dictionary.

Don’t get me wrong; lists are great. They allow us to take lots of simple data types and squish them all into the same variable. But what’s with this whole accessing data by a number thing? Do you as a human lookup stuff in your brain via number?

Internal Monologue

What’s my favorite color?

Oh I store that at index 137875.

It’s "green"

End Internal Monologue

Probably not. More likely you store it with a phrase, like “favorite_color” (in CS we call this a key) and get back your favorite color "green" (which we call a value). Dictionaries are Python’s way of emulating this sort of storage and that’s what we’ll be talking about today!

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Today's Resources

1. Exercise Files

Download Exercise Files

2. Slides

• Intro to Dictionaries

3. Pre-Recorded Lecture Video(s), Mini-Quizzes, and Live Recordings

Available Videos

Link	Title	Type	Duration
Video 1	Live Lecture Recording	lecture	50:00