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Main Data Structures in Python

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Hi friends! In this blog post, we will be discussing about the main data structures in Python and see some relevant examples.

 

What is a Data Structure?

A data structure, is a construct/container that is used for storing, managing and organizing data. Each programming language, offers its own set of constructs to be used as data structures.

It is with data structures that you work with any form of data in every programming language, therefore they are considered a significant part of every programming language.

 

Main Python Data Structures

Below, we will see some of the commonly used data structures in the Python programming language, that can be used for storing and processing collections of data, which are also known as non-primitive data structures.

The list of data structures that we will be examining below, is not the full list, since Python provides many other data structures as well.

 

List

The “List” data structure in Python, allows you to store multiple values in a single variable.

One of the main characteristics of Python Lists, is that they are mutable. That means that you can change the values of any element in the list at any moment.

Once defined, you can then access and modify any value, using the proper index.

Let’s see a simple example of working with the List data type in Python:

# List Example in Python
# Define List
vehiclesList = ["car", "motorbike", "train"]

# Print Full List
print (vehiclesList)

# Print a Specific Element from the List
print(vehiclesList[0])

 

Tuple

Like the “List” data structure, “Tuple” allows you to store multiple values in a single variable.

Its main difference from the “List” data structure, is that the “Tuple” data structure is immutable. That means that you cannot change the values of any element after defining the tuple.

Let’s see a simple example of working with the Tuple data type in Python:

# Tuple Example in Python
# Define Tuple
vehiclesTuple = ("car", "motorbike", "train")

# Print Full Tuple
print (vehiclesTuple)

# Print a Specific Element from the Tuple
print(vehiclesTuple[0])

 

Dictionaries

The “Dictionary” data structure in Python, is used for storing data in a key-value pair format.

When defining a Dictionary construct in Python, the key needs to be a single element, and the value can be any type such as: List, Tuple, float, int, etc.

Let’s see a simple example of working with the Dictionary data type in Python:

# Dictionary Example in Python
# Define Dictionary
vehiclesDictionary = {"Type": "Car", "Color" : "Red"}

# Print Dictionary
print (vehiclesDictionary)

 

Sets

The “Set” data structure in Python, is used for storing collections of unique, unorder and immutable elements.

To this end, one its main characteristics, is that you cannot have duplicate values and as of that, if you include a duplicate value in the set’s definition, then it will be automatically removed from the set during runtime.

Let’s see a relevant example of using the Set data structure, where I will be intentionally including a duplicate value, in order to see how the Set data structure will handle it:

# Set Example in Python
# Define Set
vehiclesSet = {"car", "motorbike", "train", "train"}

# Print Set
print (vehiclesSet)

If you run the above code in Python, you will see that it will only print the following: {'train', 'motorbike', 'car'}

The reason for that, is because the Set data structure will automatically track the duplicate value “train” and remove it.

 

Other Python Data Structures

There are many other data structures in Python, that can be used for storing single values, in contrast to the above four data structures which can be used for storing collections of data.

Examples of such data structures include: integers, floats, strings, Booleans and more.

The above data structures, are also known as primitive data structures.

 

 

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