How do you convert two lists into a dictionary

Question

I have two lists:

keys = ['Name','Emp ID','Contact Info']
values = ['Ken','ED445','#########']

Suggest me an easier way to convert the above given list  into below given format:

dict = {'Name' : 'Ken', 'Emp ID' : ED445, 'Contact Info' : '#########'}

Comments

Hi,

Can we make shortest as keys and longest as values and at the same time don't miss anything?

keys = ['Ken','ED445','#########']

values = ['Name','Emp ID','Contact Info','Name2','Emp ID', 'Contact info']

EXPECTED_RESULT = {'ken': 'Name','ED445' : 'Emp ID', '#########' : 'Contact Info', 'Ken':'Name2','ED445': 'Emp ID'}

Answer 1

There are three different ways of converting two lists into key:value pair dictionary. 

Lets look at them one by one (using above given example):

1) Naive method:

 By simply declaring a dictionary and then running a nested loop for both lists and assigning key:value pairs.

#initializing lists

keys = ['Name','Emp ID','Contact Info']
values = ['Ken','ED445','#########']

#to convert list into dictionary

res = {} 
for key in keys: 
    for value in values: 
        res[key] = value 
        values.remove(value) 
        break  

#print dictionary

print ("dict : " +  str(res)) 

Output:

dict : {'Name': 'Ken', 'Emp ID': 'ED445', 'Contact Info': '#########'}

2) Using zip() method

Here one list elements are paired with the another list elements at corresponding index in key:value pair.

# initializing lists

keys = ['Name','Emp ID','Contact Info']
values = ['Ken','ED445','#########']   

#using zip() convert list into dictionary

res = dict(zip(keys, values))

#print dictionary

print ("dict : " +  str(res)) 

Output:

dict : {'Name': 'Ken', 'Emp ID': 'ED445', 'Contact Info': '#########'}

3) Using dictionary comprehension

# initializing lists

keys = ['Name','Emp ID','Contact Info']
values = ['Ken','ED445','#########']   

#using dictionary comprehension to convert list into dictionary

res = {keys[i]: values[i] for i in range(len(keys))}

#print dictionary

print ("dict : " +  str(res)) 

Output:

dict : {'Name': 'Ken', 'Emp ID': 'ED445', 'Contact Info': '#########'}

2nd and 3rd method are faster and time saving as it involves less code.

Comments

When zip() method is used, dict is not callable.

---

Hey, @Darshika,

You can do one put square brackets while using zip() method as shown below:

res = dict[zip(keys, values)]

I hope this will remove the error you facing.