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Python Python Collections (Retired) Dictionaries Teacher Stats

Rodrigue Loredon
Rodrigue Loredon
1,338 Points

I can't figure out how to write the nested for loops to get a count of the teachers's courses in the teachers.py script

Hi, I've been on this for 24 hours and still can't figure it out.

teachers.py
# The dictionary will be something like:

# Often, it's a good idea to hold onto a max_count variable.
# Update it when you find a teacher with more classes than
# the current count. Better hold onto the teacher name somewhere
# too!
#
# Your code goes below here.
teachers = {'Jason Seifer': ['Ruby Foundations', 'Ruby on Rails Forms', 'Technology Foundations'],
  'Kenneth Love': ['Python Basics', 'Python Collections']}

def most_classes(teachers):
  max_count = 0
  course_number = 0
  teacher_with_most_classes =''

3 Answers

Chris Freeman
MOD
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,454 Points

Hi Rodrigue, You don't necessarily need nested loops (a loop within a loop) for this task.

A bit of background: A dictionary can be iterated over in several ways using a for loop as shown in the ipython session below.

# define a dictionary
In [24]: d1 = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}

# list keys of dictionary
In [25]: d1.keys()
Out[25]: dict_keys(['a', 'b'])
# use keys() to create iterable list of keys
In [26]: for key in d1.keys():
    print(key)
   ....:     
a
b

# list values of dictionary
In [29]: d1.values()
Out[29]: dict_values([1, 2])
# use values() to create iterable list of values
In [30]: for value in d1.values():
    print(value)
   ....:     
1
2

# list key value pairs of dictionary as Tuples
In [27]: d1.items()
Out[27]: dict_items([('a', 1), ('b', 2)])
# use items() to create iterable list of key value tuples
In [28]: for item in d1.items():
    print(item)
   ....:     
('a', 1)
('b', 2)

# list key value pairs of dictionary as Individual items
In [31]: d1.items()
Out[31]: dict_items([('a', 1), ('b', 2)])
# use items() to create iterable list of key value individually
In [32]: for key, value in d1.items():
   ....:     print(key, value)
   ....:     
a 1
b 2

# The default assumption is to iterate over the keys:
In [33]: for key in d1:
   ....:     print(key)
   ....:     
a
b

Using the default method, you can iterate over the dictionary keys like this:

def most_classes(teachers):
  max_count = 0
  course_number = 0
  teacher_with_most_classes =''
  # loop  over each key in teachers dictionary
  for teacher in teachers:
      # check if the length of this teacher's class list is a new max
      if len(teachers[teacher]) > max_count:
        # save this teacher as new max
        max_count = len(teachers[teacher])
        teacher_with_most_classes = teacher
  # return max teacher name
  return teacher_with_most_classes


[**Edit**: added missing max_count assignment --cf]
Rodrigue Loredon
Rodrigue Loredon
1,338 Points

Hello Chris, I appreciate your help thank you but I wasn't able to pass that challenge. I even tried copy pasting your code but the script still doesn't return the right teacher. Take care

Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,454 Points

Oops! I forgot to update max_count. See corrected answer above.

Rodrigue Loredon
Rodrigue Loredon
1,338 Points

Awsome! It works and helped my understanding a lot. Thank you VERY VERY MUCH :)