Iterating over dictionaries using 'for' loops

For Iterating through dictionaries, The below code can be used.

dictionary= {1:"a", 2:"b", 3:"c"}

#To iterate over the keys
for key in dictionary.keys():
    print(key)

#To Iterate over the values
for value in dictionary.values():
    print(value)

#To Iterate both the keys and values
for key, value in dictionary.items():
    print(key,'\t', value)

You can check the implementation of CPython's dicttype on GitHub. This is the signature of method that implements the dict iterator:

_PyDict_Next(PyObject *op, Py_ssize_t *ppos, PyObject **pkey,
             PyObject **pvalue, Py_hash_t *phash)

CPython dictobject.c

If you are looking for a clear and visual example:

cat  = {'name': 'Snowy', 'color': 'White' ,'age': 14}
for key , value in cat.items():
   print(key, ': ', value)

Result:

name:  Snowy
color:  White
age:  14

This will print the output in sorted order by values in ascending order.

d = {'x': 3, 'y': 1, 'z': 2}

def by_value(item):
    return item[1]

for key, value in sorted(d.items(), key=by_value):
    print(key, '->', value)

Output:

y -> 1
z -> 2
x -> 3

Let's get straight to the point. If the word key is just a variable, as you have mentioned then the main thing to note is that when you run a 'FOR LOOP' over a dictionary it runs through only the 'keys' and ignores the 'values'.

d = {'x': 1, 'y': 2, 'z': 3} 
for key in d:
    print (key, 'corresponds to', d[key])

rather try this:

d = {'x': 1, 'y': 2, 'z': 3} 
for i in d:
    print (i, 'corresponds to', d[i])

but if you use a function like:

d = {'x': 1, 'y': 2, 'z': 3}
print(d.keys())

in the above case 'keys' is just not a variable, its a function.

A dictionary in Python is a collection of key-value pairs. Each key is connected to a value, and you can use a key to access the value associated with that key. A key's value can be a number, a string, a list, or even another dictionary. In this case, threat each "key-value pair" as a separate row in the table: d is your table with two columns. the key is the first column, key[value] is your second column. Your for loop is a standard way to iterate over a table.