# Accessing List Values Within The Dictionary In Python

The **dictionary** is a data structure in Python that belongs to the **mapping** category. When data(key-value) is enclosed by curly(`{ }`) braces, we can say it is a dictionary.

A dictionary has a **key** that holds a **value**, also known as a `key-value` pair. Using the `dictionary[key]`, we can get the value assigned to the `key`.

**What if the dictionary contains the values in the form of a list?** In this article, we'll look at all of the different ways to access items from lists within the dictionary.

## Sample data

Given data contains items in a list as the values of keys within the dictionary. We'll work with this given data throughout the article.

![Sample data](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1681406346302/504da819-1a25-42e7-9da0-60d3f04b6397.png align="center")

## Using Indexing

In the following example, we've used the indexing method and passed the **index** along with the **key** from which the value is to be extracted.

The convention `dict_name[key][index]` must be used to access the list values from the dictionary.

```python
# Using indexing

# Accessing list items from the key
acc_key = my_data['Python dev']
print(acc_key)
# Accessing first list item from the key
acc_data = my_data['C++ dev'][0]
print(acc_data)

# Accessing third list item from the key
acc_data1 = my_data['PHP dev'][2]
print(acc_data1)

# Accessing second list item from the key 'name' from
# the dictionary 'detail' within the dictionary 'my_data'
acc_dict_item = my_data['detail']['name'][1]
print(acc_dict_item)
```

**Output**

```bash
['Sachin', 'Aman', 'Siya']
Rishu
Shalini
Siya
```

When we accessed only the `key`, we got the entire list, but when we specified the `index` number with the `key`, we got the specific values.

## Using slicing

It's the same as the previous method, except instead of specifying the index value, we've used the slicing range.

```python
# Using slicing method

# Accessing list items by skipping 2 steps
val = my_data['Python dev'][:3:2]
print(val)

# Accessing first list item from the end
val1 = my_data['C++ dev'][-1:]
print(val1)

# Accessing list items except the last item
val2 = my_data['PHP dev'][:-1]
print(val2)
```

**Output**

```bash
['Sachin', 'Siya']
['Rahul']
['Abhishek', 'Peter']
```

## Using for loop

The for loop has been used in the following example to iterate over the values of the list in the dictionary `my_data`.

```python
# Using for loop

# 1 - Accessing key and values from the dict 'my_data'
for key, value in my_data.items():
    print(key, value)

print('-'*20)

# 2 - Iterating over list items from each key
for key, value in my_data.items():
    for items in value:
        print(f'{key} - {items}')

print('-'*20)

# 3 - Iterating list items from nested dictionary 'detail'
for key, value in my_data['detail'].items():
    for items in value:
        print(f'{key} - {items}')

print('-'*20)

# 4 - Accessing list item from individual key
for value in my_data['PHP dev']:
    print(value)
```

We iterated both `keys` and `values` from the dictionary `my_data` in the first block of code, then the list items from each `key` in the second block, the list items from each `key` within the nested dictionary `detail` in the third block, and the list items of the specific `key` in the last block of code.

**Output**

```bash
Python dev ['Sachin', 'Aman', 'Siya']
C++ dev ['Rishu', 'Yashwant', 'Rahul']
PHP dev ['Abhishek', 'Peter', 'Shalini']
detail {'name': ['Sachin', 'Siya'], 'hobby': ['Coding', 'Reading']}
--------------------
Python dev - Sachin
Python dev - Aman
Python dev - Siya
C++ dev - Rishu
C++ dev - Yashwant
C++ dev - Rahul
PHP dev - Abhishek
PHP dev - Peter
PHP dev - Shalini
detail - name
detail - hobby
--------------------
name - Sachin
name - Siya
hobby - Coding
hobby - Reading
--------------------
Abhishek
Peter
Shalini
```

## Using list comprehension

The list comprehension technique is used in the following example. It's the same method as before, but this time we've used the `for` loop within the `list`.

```python
# Using list comprehension

# Accessing list item from the key 'Python dev'
lst_com = [item for item in my_data['Python dev']]
print(lst_com)

# Accessing list item from nested dictionary
lst_com1 = [item for item in my_data['detail']['name']]
print(lst_com1)
```

**Output**

```bash
['Sachin', 'Aman', 'Siya']
['Sachin', 'Siya']
```

## Using unpacking(\*) operator

You've probably used the asterisk(`*`) operator for multiplication, exponentiation, `**kwargs`, `*args`, and other things, but we're going to use it as an **unpacking operator**.

```python
# Using unpacking operator

# Accessing values from every key
using_unpkg_op = [*my_data.values()]
print(using_unpkg_op)
print('-'*20)
print(using_unpkg_op[0])

print('-'*20)

# Accessing list items from the key 'Python dev'
using_unpkg_op = [*my_data.get('Python dev')]
# Accessing first item from the list
print(using_unpkg_op[0])
```

The expression `*my_data.values()` in the preceding code will return all the values of the keys in the dictionary `my_data`, and once the values are returned, we can specify the index number to access specific data.

The expression `*my_data.get('Python dev')` returns the values of the key `Python dev`, and through indexing, we can access the list item.

**Output**

```bash
[['Sachin', 'Aman', 'Siya'], ['Rishu', 'Yashwant', 'Rahul'], ['Abhishek', 'Peter', 'Shalini'], {'name': ['Sachin', 'Siya'], 'hobby': ['Coding', 'Reading']}]
--------------------
['Sachin', 'Aman', 'Siya']
--------------------
Sachin
```

## Conclusion

In this article, we've seen the different methods to access list items within the dictionary. The dictionary we've operated on contains the keys with the values as a list and also a nested dictionary.

We've used five methods to access the list items from the dictionary which are as follows:

* **Indexing** - Using the bracket notation(`[ ]`)
    
* **Slicing** - Using the list slicing
    
* **Iterating** - Using the `for` loop
    
* **List comprehension technique**
    
* **Unpacking(**`*`**) operator**
    

Well, this is it for the article, try to find some more methods to access list items within the dictionary.

---

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**That's all for now**

**Keep Coding✌✌**