What are some use cases for the dict in Python's collections module?

What are some practical use cases for the dict in Python's collections module?

The dict in Python's collections module is versatile. You can use it for counting occurrences, grouping data, and caching results.

Can you give me an example of using dict for counting occurrences?

Sure! You can use a dict to count how many times each word appears in a list. For example:

words = ['apple', 'banana', 'apple', 'orange']
count = {}
for word in words:
    count[word] = count.get(word, 0) + 1
print(count)  # Output: {'apple': 2, 'banana': 1, 'orange': 1}

What about using dict for grouping data?

You can group data by using a dict where keys are the group identifiers. For instance, grouping students by their grades:

students = [('Alice', 'A'), ('Bob', 'B'), ('Charlie', 'A')]
grouped = {}
for name, grade in students:
    if grade not in grouped:
        grouped[grade] = []
    grouped[grade].append(name)
print(grouped)  # Output: {'A': ['Alice', 'Charlie'], 'B': ['Bob']}