items(), keys() and values() methods in Python dictionary

An element in a dictionary is also called an item. Each item is made up of a key and a value.

The three dictionary methods; items(), keys() and values() retrieves all items, keys and values respectively.

items() - Get all items present in a dictionary

To get an iterable containing all the items present in a dictionary, use the items() method. The syntax is as shown below:

d.items()

The method does not take any argument.

d = {
      'Spain': 'Madrid',
      'Italy': 'Rome',
      'France': 'paris'
    }
#get the items
all_items = d.items()

print(all_items)

The items() method is useful when it comes to iterating over the dictionary items. Remember that iterating over a dictionary only yields its keys, so using the items() method allows you to access both the key and its corresponding value in one iteration.

d = {
      'Spain': 'Madrid',
      'Italy': 'Rome',
      'France': 'paris'
    }

for i in d:
   print(i)

In the above example, we used the for loop to iterate over a dictionary. As you can see, only the keys are returned. Now consider the same example with the items() method.

d = {
      'Spain': 'Madrid',
      'Italy': 'Rome',
      'France': 'paris'
    }

for i in d.items():
   print(i)

As you can see, iterating through the items() object returns tuples in the form (key, value) for each dictionary item.

keys() - get all keys of a dictionary

The keys() method returns an object containing all the keys present in a dictionary.

it has the following syntax:

d.keys()

The method does not take any arguments.

d = {
      'Spain': 'Madrid',
      'Italy': 'Rome',
      'France': 'paris'
    }
#get the keys
all_keys = d.keys()

print(all_keys)
print(type(all_keys))

You can iterate through the returned object to get individual keys at each iteration.

d = {
      'Spain': 'Madrid',
      'Italy': 'Rome',
      'France': 'paris'
    }
#iterate through the keys
for k in d.keys():
   print(k)

values() - get all values in the dictionary

Finally, the values() method returns an object containing all the keys in the dictionary. It has the following syntax:

d.values()

The method does not take arguments.

d = {
      'Spain': 'Madrid',
      'Italy': 'Rome',
      'France': 'paris'
    }
#get the keys
all_values = d.values()

print(all_values)
print(type(all_values))

d = {
      'Spain': 'Madrid',
      'Italy': 'Rome',
      'France': 'paris'
    }
#iterate through the keys
for v in d.values():
   print(v)

Conclusion

• Use items() to get an iterable of two length tuples, where each tuple contains a key and a value of a dictionary item.
• Use keys() to get an iterable of all the keys present in a dictionary.
• use values() to get an iterable of all the values present in a dictionary.