Multi-Dimensional Dictionary
A multi-dimensional dictionary in Python is just a dictionary where the values are themselves other dictionaries. This means you can store a lot of information in a structured way, with each key pointing to another dictionary that holds more data. You can keep nesting dictionaries inside each other, creating deeper levels of information.
Example:
# Multi-dimensional dictionary
students = {
'student1': {
'name': 'Anil',
'age': 20,
'courses': ['Math', 'Physics']
},
'student2': {
'name': 'Rohit',
'age': 22,
'courses': ['Biology', 'Chemistry']
}
}In this example:
The outer dictionary students has keys ‘student1’ and ‘student2’.
Each key maps to another dictionary containing information about the student, like ‘name’, ‘age’, and ‘courses’
Accessing Values:
To access the values in a multi-dimensional dictionary, you can use nested keys.
# Accessing Anil's name
print(students['student1']['name']) # Output: Anil
# Accessing Rohit's age
print(students['student2']['age']) # Output: 22
# Accessing courses of student1
print(students['student1']['courses']) # Output: ['Math', 'Physics']Use Cases:
Multi-dimensional dictionaries are useful in situations where:
You need to store complex, structured data.
You want to represent data in a hierarchical form.
You are working with things like user profiles, datasets with multiple categories, or settings that have subcategories.
Modifying a Multi-Dimensional Dictionary:
You can modify values just like you would in a regular dictionary:
# Update age of student1
students['student1']['age'] = 21
# Add a new course to student2
students['student2']['courses'].append('Geography')
# Add a new student
students['student3'] = {
'name': 'Aman',
'age': 23,
'courses': ['History', 'Math']
}Nested Dictionary with Multiple Levels:
Multi-dimensional dictionaries can be even more complex, with more levels of nesting:
# Example of a 3-level deep dictionary
company = {
'HR': {
'employees': {
'Aman': {'age': 30, 'role': 'Manager'},
'Paras': {'age': 28, 'role': 'Recruiter'}
},
'departments': ['Recruitment', 'Payroll']
},
'IT': {
'employees': {
'Manish': {'age': 35, 'role': 'Developer'},
'Seerat': {'age': 40, 'role': 'Systems Administrator'}
},
'departments': ['Development', 'Infrastructure']
}
}Key Operations:
Add a new nested key-value pair.
students['student3'] = {'name': 'Sam', 'age': 24, 'courses': ['English', 'Math']}Update a value at a deeper level
students['student1']['courses'].append('Art')Iterating through nested dictionaries: You can use loops to iterate through the dictionary and its nested dictionaries.
student, info in students.items(): print(f"{student}: {info['name']}, Age: {info['age']}, Courses: {', '.join(info['courses'])}")