Subject - Computer Science.

Dictionary

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Student Question

What does 'dictionary' mean in computer science?

Sia Response

In computer science, a 'dictionary' is a data structure that stores pairs of keys and values. Dictionaries are also known as associative arrays, maps, or hash tables in different programming languages. Each key in a dictionary is unique and is used to access the corresponding value. Dictionaries are often used for fast data retrieval, where the key provides a quick way to find the associated value.

  • Example: In Python, a dictionary can be created using curly braces with key-value pairs separated by colons:
my_dictionary = { 'key1': 'value1', 'key2': 'value2', 'key3': 'value3' }

  • Access: You can access a value by referring to its key, like my_dictionary['key1'] which would return 'value1'.

  • Modification: You can also modify the value associated with a key or add new key-value pairs.

  • Efficiency: Dictionaries are optimized for retrieving data, and the time complexity for accessing a value is typically O(1).

Dictionaries are widely used in various applications such as database indexing, caching, and settings/configuration management.

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