Lecture 2
Data Structures
Prepared by:
Ahmed Elhoseiny
Agenda
⚫ What is data structures ?
⚫ List (Access Items, Change Items, Add Items, Remove Items, Sort, Copy, Join)
⚫ Tuples (Access Items, Update, Join)
⚫ Dictionaries (Access Items, Change Items, Add Items, Remove Items, Copy,
Nested)
⚫ List vs Tuples vs Dictionaties
What is Data Structures ?
⚫ A data structure is a specialized format for organizing,
processing, retrieving, and storing data.
⚫ It enables efficient data management and manipulation,
providing a way to organize data so that it can be accessed
and modified effectively.
⚫ Data structures are fundamental to designing efficient
algorithms and are critical for software engineering,
database management, and various computational tasks.
List
⚫ Lists are used to store multiple items in a single variable.
⚫ Lists are one of 4 built-in data types in Python used to store
collections of data, the other 3 are Tuple, Set, and Dictionary,
all with different qualities and usage.
⚫ Use Cases: Suitable for ordered collections where elements may need
to be frequently added, removed, or modified.
⚫ To determine how many items a list has, use the len() function
List (Access Items)
⚫ List items are indexed and you can access them by
referring to the index number
⚫ List items are indexed, the first item has index [0], the
second item has index [1]
⚫ Negative indexing means start from the end [-1] refers to
the last item, [-2] refers to the second last item.
⚫ You can specify a range of indexes by specifying where to
start and where to end the range.
List (Change Items)
⚫ To change the value of a specific item, refer to the index number
⚫ To change the value of items within a specific range, define a list with the
new values, and refer to the range of index numbers where you want to
insert the new values
⚫ If you insert more items than you replace, the new items will be inserted
where you specified, and the remaining items will move accordingly
⚫ If you insert less items than you replace, the new items will be inserted
where you specified, and the remaining items will move accordingly
List (Add Items)
⚫ To add an item to the end of the list, use the append()
method
⚫ The insert() method inserts an item at the specified index
⚫ Or you can use the extend() method, where the purpose is
to add elements from one list to another list
List (Remove Items)
⚫ The remove() method removes the specified item
⚫ If there are more than one item with the specified value,
the remove() method removes the first occurrence
⚫ The pop() method removes the specified index
⚫ The del keyword also removes the specified index
⚫ The del keyword can also delete the list completely
⚫ The clear() method empties the list
List (Sort)
⚫ List objects have a sort() method that will sort the list
alphanumerically, ascending, numerically
⚫ To sort descending, use the keyword argument reverse=
True
⚫ The reverse() method reverses the current sorting order of
the elements.
List (Copy)
⚫ You cannot copy a list simply by typing list2 = list1
⚫ Make a copy of a list with the copy() method
⚫ Another way to make a copy is to use the built-in method
list()
List (Join)
⚫ One of the easiest ways are by using the + operator.
⚫ you can use the extend() method, where the purpose is to
add elements from one list to another list
Tuples
⚫ Tuples are used to store multiple items in a single variable.
⚫ A tuple is a collection which is ordered and unchangeable.
⚫ Use Cases: Suitable for read-only collections of items where
immutability is desired for ensuring data integrity.
⚫ To determine how many items a list has, use the len() function
Tuples (Access Items)
⚫ Tuple items are indexed and you can access them by referring
to the index number
⚫ Tuple items are indexed, the first item has index [0], the
second item has index [1]
⚫ Negative indexing means start from the end [-1] refers to the
last item, [-2] refers to the second last item.
⚫ You can specify a range of indexes by specifying where to start
and where to end the range.
Tuples(Update)
⚫ Once a tuple is created, you cannot change its values.
Tuples are unchangeable, or immutable as it also is called.
⚫ But there is a workaround. You can convert the tuple into
a list, change the list, and convert the list back into a tuple.
Tuples(Join)
⚫ To join two or more tuples you can use the + operator
⚫ If you want to multiply the content of a tuple a given
number of times, you can use the * operator
Dictionaries
⚫ Dictionaries are used to store data values in key:value
pairs.
Dictionaries(Access Items)
⚫ You can access the items of a dictionary by referring to its key
name, inside square brackets
⚫ There is also a method called get() that will give you the same
result
⚫ The keys() method will return a list of all the keys in the
dictionary.
⚫ The values() method will return a list of all the values in the
dictionary.
⚫ The items() method will return each item in a dictionary, as
tuples in a list.
Dictionaries(Change Items)
⚫ You can change the value of a specific item by referring to
its key name
⚫ The update() method will update the dictionary with the
items from the given argument.
Dictionaries(Add Items)
⚫ Adding an item to the dictionary is done by using a new
index key and assigning a value to it
⚫ The update() method will update the dictionary with the
items from a given argument. If the item does not exist,
the item will be added.
Dictionaries(Remove Items)
⚫ The pop() method removes the item with the specified key
name
⚫ The del keyword removes the item with the specified key
name
⚫ The clear() method empties the dictionary
Dictionaries(Copy)
⚫ You cannot copy a dictionary simply by typing dict2 =
dict1
⚫ There are ways to make a copy, one way is to use the
built-in Dictionary method copy()
⚫ Another way to make a copy is to use the built-in function
dict()
Dictionaries(Nested)
⚫ A dictionary can contain dictionaries, this is called nested
dictionaries.
⚫ Or, if you want to add three dictionaries into a new
dictionary
⚫ To access items from a nested dictionary, you use the
name of the dictionaries, starting with the outer dictionary
List vs Tuples vs Dictionaties
Assignment
⚫ 1- Code to print avrage this list [50,80,16,24,180]
⚫ Note: (Avrage = sum / len)
⚫ 2- Code to add ‘orange’ in this tuple (‘apple’ ,’banana’)
⚫ 3- code to add (color is blue) to this
Questions ?
