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Python

Posted by Jonathan Emerson
Jonathan Emerson
4,485 Points

Python Dictionary Help - finding the max with with multiple values

So say you have a dictionary of cars including the makes, models and year. Like below:

cars = {'Hyundai': ('Tucson', 2006), 'Mitsubishi': ('Outlander', 2015), 'Ford': ('Focus', 1998)}

I'm struggling when trying to loop over a dictionary when keys have more than a single value to return the key and values for the newest car ( here it would be the 'Mitsubishi': ('Outlander', 2015)).

I'm still very new to python, can anyone help explain how to approach these kind of problems? All the best,

1 Answer

Daniel Turato
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Daniel Turato
Java Web Development Techdegree Graduate 30,124 Points

So here's what I did:

cars = {'Hyundai': ('Tucson', 2006), 'Mitsubishi': ('Outlander', 2015), 'Ford': ('Focus', 1998)}

make = ""
year = 0
tup = ()
for key, value in cars.items():
    if value[1] > year:
        make = key
        year = value[1]
        tup = value

print(make)
print(tup)

So first off you need to loop over the dictionary and you need to compare the years of the cars to eachother. To do this, you create a temporary variable to hold the newest car at each iteration. Then you compare them to eachother, and if the year is greater than the previous year then you can replace the temporary year. At the end, you will have the newest car.

Jonathan Emerson
Jonathan Emerson
4,485 Points

Ah, okay perfect, wouldn't believe how long that's been annoying me!
And the opposite to find the oldest would just mean changing the year to 2019 and flipping to <

Thank you!