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Python Python Collections (Retired) Dictionaries Membership

Posted by Guy-Francis Kono
Guy-Francis Kono
9,289 Points

Need Help!

How do I get this completed? I am thoroughly confused! And I can't seem to find any hints in the videos.

counts.py 
# You can check for dictionary membership using the
# "key in dict" syntax from lists.

### Example
# my_dict = {'apples': 1, 'bananas': 2, 'coconuts': 3}
# my_list = ['apples', 'coconuts', 'grapes', 'strawberries']
# members(my_dict, my_list) => 2

def members(my_dict, my_list):
    my_dict = {}
    my_list = []
    for key in my_list:
        if key in my_dict:
            return key, my_list.count(key)

2 Answers

Jennifer Nordell
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STAFF
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse Teacher
Jennifer Nordell
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Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse Teacher

Hi! It seems to me that you're very close here, but there's a couple of problems. So, I'm going to give you some hints. First, and foremost, you're overwriting what Treehouse is sending in by resetting the my_dict and my_list to empty. Everything they just sent in has been erased.

The second problem is in what you're returning. They want you to return a count of how many keys are found in the dictionary. This will require you to set up a variable to keep count. At the end, you are to return the count.

Hope this helps! :sparkles:

Guy-Francis Kono
Guy-Francis Kono
9,289 Points

Thank you for the explanation, Jennifer. That clarified the whole process to me so I could work on getting the answer.

Russell Sawyer
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Russell Sawyer
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 15,705 Points
Russell Sawyer
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Russell Sawyer
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 15,705 Points

You are pretty close. Remember indentation is important. Where you have your return statement would return a value every time the loop was run. You want to return a value after the for loop runs. Also, you can use all of the internet to find the answer.

def members(my_dict, my_list):
    count = 0
    for key in my_dict:
        if key in my_list:
            count += 1
    return count
Guy-Francis Kono
Guy-Francis Kono
9,289 Points

Thanks for the help Russell. It came in valuable to compare my final answer with what you shared with me.