Finding highest value in a dictionary

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up vote
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I'm new to programming and currently taking a CSC 110 class. Our assignment is to create a bunch functions that do all sorts of things with some data that is given. I have taken all that data and put it into a dictionary but I'm having some trouble getting the data I want out of it.



Here is my problem:



I have a dictionary that stores a bunch of countries followed by a list that includes their population and GDP. Formatted something like this



'country': [population, GDP], ...


My task is to loop through this and find the country with the highest population or GDP then print:



'The country with the highest population is ' + highCountry+
' with a population of ' + format(highPop, ',.0f')+'.')


In order to do this I wrote this function (this one is specifically for highest population but they all look about the same).



def highestPop(worldInfo):
highPop = worldInfo[next(iter(worldInfo))][0] #Grabs first countries Population
highCountry = next(iter(worldInfo))#Grabs first country in worldInfo

for k,v in worldInfo.items():
if v[0] > highPop:
highPop = v[0]
highCountry = k

return highPop,highCountry


While this is working for me I gotta think there is an easier way to do this. Also I'm not 100% sure how [next(iter(worldInfo))] works. Does this just grab the first value it sees?



Thanks for your help in advance!



Edit: Sorry I guess I wasn't clear. I need to pass the countries population but also the countries name. So I can print both of them in my main function.










share|improve this question



















  • 3




    There is the function max() which can take something iterable (like the dict items). If you give a key function as parameter which extracts the desired value (here: population) it will return the item you want.
    – Michael Butscher
    Dec 4 at 2:09






  • 1




    Possible duplicate of Getting key with maximum value in dictionary?
    – Azat Ibrakov
    Dec 4 at 9:46














up vote
12
down vote

favorite
2












I'm new to programming and currently taking a CSC 110 class. Our assignment is to create a bunch functions that do all sorts of things with some data that is given. I have taken all that data and put it into a dictionary but I'm having some trouble getting the data I want out of it.



Here is my problem:



I have a dictionary that stores a bunch of countries followed by a list that includes their population and GDP. Formatted something like this



'country': [population, GDP], ...


My task is to loop through this and find the country with the highest population or GDP then print:



'The country with the highest population is ' + highCountry+
' with a population of ' + format(highPop, ',.0f')+'.')


In order to do this I wrote this function (this one is specifically for highest population but they all look about the same).



def highestPop(worldInfo):
highPop = worldInfo[next(iter(worldInfo))][0] #Grabs first countries Population
highCountry = next(iter(worldInfo))#Grabs first country in worldInfo

for k,v in worldInfo.items():
if v[0] > highPop:
highPop = v[0]
highCountry = k

return highPop,highCountry


While this is working for me I gotta think there is an easier way to do this. Also I'm not 100% sure how [next(iter(worldInfo))] works. Does this just grab the first value it sees?



Thanks for your help in advance!



Edit: Sorry I guess I wasn't clear. I need to pass the countries population but also the countries name. So I can print both of them in my main function.










share|improve this question



















  • 3




    There is the function max() which can take something iterable (like the dict items). If you give a key function as parameter which extracts the desired value (here: population) it will return the item you want.
    – Michael Butscher
    Dec 4 at 2:09






  • 1




    Possible duplicate of Getting key with maximum value in dictionary?
    – Azat Ibrakov
    Dec 4 at 9:46












up vote
12
down vote

favorite
2









up vote
12
down vote

favorite
2






2





I'm new to programming and currently taking a CSC 110 class. Our assignment is to create a bunch functions that do all sorts of things with some data that is given. I have taken all that data and put it into a dictionary but I'm having some trouble getting the data I want out of it.



Here is my problem:



I have a dictionary that stores a bunch of countries followed by a list that includes their population and GDP. Formatted something like this



'country': [population, GDP], ...


My task is to loop through this and find the country with the highest population or GDP then print:



'The country with the highest population is ' + highCountry+
' with a population of ' + format(highPop, ',.0f')+'.')


In order to do this I wrote this function (this one is specifically for highest population but they all look about the same).



def highestPop(worldInfo):
highPop = worldInfo[next(iter(worldInfo))][0] #Grabs first countries Population
highCountry = next(iter(worldInfo))#Grabs first country in worldInfo

for k,v in worldInfo.items():
if v[0] > highPop:
highPop = v[0]
highCountry = k

return highPop,highCountry


While this is working for me I gotta think there is an easier way to do this. Also I'm not 100% sure how [next(iter(worldInfo))] works. Does this just grab the first value it sees?



Thanks for your help in advance!



Edit: Sorry I guess I wasn't clear. I need to pass the countries population but also the countries name. So I can print both of them in my main function.










share|improve this question















I'm new to programming and currently taking a CSC 110 class. Our assignment is to create a bunch functions that do all sorts of things with some data that is given. I have taken all that data and put it into a dictionary but I'm having some trouble getting the data I want out of it.



Here is my problem:



I have a dictionary that stores a bunch of countries followed by a list that includes their population and GDP. Formatted something like this



'country': [population, GDP], ...


My task is to loop through this and find the country with the highest population or GDP then print:



'The country with the highest population is ' + highCountry+
' with a population of ' + format(highPop, ',.0f')+'.')


In order to do this I wrote this function (this one is specifically for highest population but they all look about the same).



def highestPop(worldInfo):
highPop = worldInfo[next(iter(worldInfo))][0] #Grabs first countries Population
highCountry = next(iter(worldInfo))#Grabs first country in worldInfo

for k,v in worldInfo.items():
if v[0] > highPop:
highPop = v[0]
highCountry = k

return highPop,highCountry


While this is working for me I gotta think there is an easier way to do this. Also I'm not 100% sure how [next(iter(worldInfo))] works. Does this just grab the first value it sees?



Thanks for your help in advance!



Edit: Sorry I guess I wasn't clear. I need to pass the countries population but also the countries name. So I can print both of them in my main function.







python dictionary computer-science






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Dec 4 at 15:43









Ethan K

307212




307212










asked Dec 4 at 2:03









Luke Kelly

757




757







  • 3




    There is the function max() which can take something iterable (like the dict items). If you give a key function as parameter which extracts the desired value (here: population) it will return the item you want.
    – Michael Butscher
    Dec 4 at 2:09






  • 1




    Possible duplicate of Getting key with maximum value in dictionary?
    – Azat Ibrakov
    Dec 4 at 9:46












  • 3




    There is the function max() which can take something iterable (like the dict items). If you give a key function as parameter which extracts the desired value (here: population) it will return the item you want.
    – Michael Butscher
    Dec 4 at 2:09






  • 1




    Possible duplicate of Getting key with maximum value in dictionary?
    – Azat Ibrakov
    Dec 4 at 9:46







3




3




There is the function max() which can take something iterable (like the dict items). If you give a key function as parameter which extracts the desired value (here: population) it will return the item you want.
– Michael Butscher
Dec 4 at 2:09




There is the function max() which can take something iterable (like the dict items). If you give a key function as parameter which extracts the desired value (here: population) it will return the item you want.
– Michael Butscher
Dec 4 at 2:09




1




1




Possible duplicate of Getting key with maximum value in dictionary?
– Azat Ibrakov
Dec 4 at 9:46




Possible duplicate of Getting key with maximum value in dictionary?
– Azat Ibrakov
Dec 4 at 9:46












3 Answers
3






active

oldest

votes

















up vote
17
down vote



accepted










I think you're looking for this:



max(worldInfo.items(), key=lambda x: x[1][0])


This will return both the country name and its info. For instance:



('france', [100, 22])


The max() function can work on python "iterables" which is a fancy word for anything that can be cycled or looped through. Thus it cycles or loops through the thing you put into it and spits out the item that's the highest.



But how does it judge which tuple is highest? Which is higher: France or Germany? You have to specify a key (some specification for how to judge each item). The key=lambda etc specifies a function that given an item (x), judge that item based on x[1][0]. In this instance if the item is ('france', [100, 22]) then x[1][0] is 100. So the x[1][0] of each item is compared and the item with the highest one is returned.



The next() and iter() functions are for python iterators. For example:



mytuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
myit = iter(mytuple)

print(next(myit)) #=> apple
print(next(myit)) #=> banana
print(next(myit)) #=> cherry





share|improve this answer


















  • 1




    Yes this is exactly what i was looking for. Now I just need to spend 30 minutes figuring out what all that means.
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:36







  • 1




    @Conner Your comment would be far more useful if edited into your answer, just sayin'.
    – Ian Kemp
    Dec 4 at 8:41






  • 1




    Is it just because I'm old, crotchety and learned to program in BASIC and FORTRAN IV, that I think that using Python's max() function -- heck, using anything but arrays and comparison operators -- is cheating of the highest order?
    – RonJohn
    Dec 4 at 9:48






  • 4




    @RonJohn I'm old and cranky, but I'm also too lazy to rewrite something that already exists.
    – JollyJoker
    Dec 4 at 11:49






  • 2




    @JollyJoker you're a student ("new to programming and currently taking a CSC 110 class"), and thus need to write for yourself -- at least once -- your own min(), max(), bubble sort, quicksort, linked list, binary tree, hashing, etc implementations.
    – RonJohn
    Dec 4 at 14:03

















up vote
7
down vote













Use the max() function, like so:



max(item[0] for item in county_dict.values()) #use item[1] for GDP!


Also try storing the values not in a list ([a, b]) but in a tuple ((a, b)).



Edit: Like iamanigeeit said in the comments, this works to give you the country name as well:



max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())





share|improve this answer






















  • So i have to pass back not just the countries population but also the countries name as well. Is there a way to get that info from what is given above?
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:11










  • @LukeKelly Well, you could get the name from the value returned by max() if the values are always different. A loop would also work but I would not recommend it.
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:15






  • 1




    max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:36










  • @iamanigeeit That works, nice! I would just swap the values of the first part to read: country, data[0] Other than that, awesome!
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:39










  • but tuples are compared from first element... that's why i put data[0] first
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:40

















up vote
6
down vote













An efficient solution to get the key with the highest value: you can use the max function this way:



highCountry = max(worldInfo, key=lambda k: worldInfo[k][0])


The key argument is a function that specifies what values you want to use to determine the max.max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())



And obviously :



highPop = worldInfo[highCountry][0]





share|improve this answer


















  • 1




    Correction - I used a generator comprension, which generates the values lazily, so it is not slow (or less efficient). However, great idea using max() with key for sorting!
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:29










  • I'm using both of the provided comments to fix this . highCountry = max(worldInfo, key=lambda k: worldInfo[k][0]) highPop = max(item[0] for item in worldInfo.values()) #use item[1] for GDP! Is there any reason I shouldn't' do this?
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:31











  • Indeed @EthanK, however you can't get the key efficiently. :)
    – Axel Puig
    Dec 4 at 2:37











  • @LukeKelly once you have the key, you can directly access the corresponding value, it is more efficient. See my edited answer.
    – Axel Puig
    Dec 4 at 2:37










  • unless it's Python 2, then we'd need .itervalues() and .iteritems()
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:38










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3 Answers
3






active

oldest

votes








3 Answers
3






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes








up vote
17
down vote



accepted










I think you're looking for this:



max(worldInfo.items(), key=lambda x: x[1][0])


This will return both the country name and its info. For instance:



('france', [100, 22])


The max() function can work on python "iterables" which is a fancy word for anything that can be cycled or looped through. Thus it cycles or loops through the thing you put into it and spits out the item that's the highest.



But how does it judge which tuple is highest? Which is higher: France or Germany? You have to specify a key (some specification for how to judge each item). The key=lambda etc specifies a function that given an item (x), judge that item based on x[1][0]. In this instance if the item is ('france', [100, 22]) then x[1][0] is 100. So the x[1][0] of each item is compared and the item with the highest one is returned.



The next() and iter() functions are for python iterators. For example:



mytuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
myit = iter(mytuple)

print(next(myit)) #=> apple
print(next(myit)) #=> banana
print(next(myit)) #=> cherry





share|improve this answer


















  • 1




    Yes this is exactly what i was looking for. Now I just need to spend 30 minutes figuring out what all that means.
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:36







  • 1




    @Conner Your comment would be far more useful if edited into your answer, just sayin'.
    – Ian Kemp
    Dec 4 at 8:41






  • 1




    Is it just because I'm old, crotchety and learned to program in BASIC and FORTRAN IV, that I think that using Python's max() function -- heck, using anything but arrays and comparison operators -- is cheating of the highest order?
    – RonJohn
    Dec 4 at 9:48






  • 4




    @RonJohn I'm old and cranky, but I'm also too lazy to rewrite something that already exists.
    – JollyJoker
    Dec 4 at 11:49






  • 2




    @JollyJoker you're a student ("new to programming and currently taking a CSC 110 class"), and thus need to write for yourself -- at least once -- your own min(), max(), bubble sort, quicksort, linked list, binary tree, hashing, etc implementations.
    – RonJohn
    Dec 4 at 14:03














up vote
17
down vote



accepted










I think you're looking for this:



max(worldInfo.items(), key=lambda x: x[1][0])


This will return both the country name and its info. For instance:



('france', [100, 22])


The max() function can work on python "iterables" which is a fancy word for anything that can be cycled or looped through. Thus it cycles or loops through the thing you put into it and spits out the item that's the highest.



But how does it judge which tuple is highest? Which is higher: France or Germany? You have to specify a key (some specification for how to judge each item). The key=lambda etc specifies a function that given an item (x), judge that item based on x[1][0]. In this instance if the item is ('france', [100, 22]) then x[1][0] is 100. So the x[1][0] of each item is compared and the item with the highest one is returned.



The next() and iter() functions are for python iterators. For example:



mytuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
myit = iter(mytuple)

print(next(myit)) #=> apple
print(next(myit)) #=> banana
print(next(myit)) #=> cherry





share|improve this answer


















  • 1




    Yes this is exactly what i was looking for. Now I just need to spend 30 minutes figuring out what all that means.
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:36







  • 1




    @Conner Your comment would be far more useful if edited into your answer, just sayin'.
    – Ian Kemp
    Dec 4 at 8:41






  • 1




    Is it just because I'm old, crotchety and learned to program in BASIC and FORTRAN IV, that I think that using Python's max() function -- heck, using anything but arrays and comparison operators -- is cheating of the highest order?
    – RonJohn
    Dec 4 at 9:48






  • 4




    @RonJohn I'm old and cranky, but I'm also too lazy to rewrite something that already exists.
    – JollyJoker
    Dec 4 at 11:49






  • 2




    @JollyJoker you're a student ("new to programming and currently taking a CSC 110 class"), and thus need to write for yourself -- at least once -- your own min(), max(), bubble sort, quicksort, linked list, binary tree, hashing, etc implementations.
    – RonJohn
    Dec 4 at 14:03












up vote
17
down vote



accepted







up vote
17
down vote



accepted






I think you're looking for this:



max(worldInfo.items(), key=lambda x: x[1][0])


This will return both the country name and its info. For instance:



('france', [100, 22])


The max() function can work on python "iterables" which is a fancy word for anything that can be cycled or looped through. Thus it cycles or loops through the thing you put into it and spits out the item that's the highest.



But how does it judge which tuple is highest? Which is higher: France or Germany? You have to specify a key (some specification for how to judge each item). The key=lambda etc specifies a function that given an item (x), judge that item based on x[1][0]. In this instance if the item is ('france', [100, 22]) then x[1][0] is 100. So the x[1][0] of each item is compared and the item with the highest one is returned.



The next() and iter() functions are for python iterators. For example:



mytuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
myit = iter(mytuple)

print(next(myit)) #=> apple
print(next(myit)) #=> banana
print(next(myit)) #=> cherry





share|improve this answer














I think you're looking for this:



max(worldInfo.items(), key=lambda x: x[1][0])


This will return both the country name and its info. For instance:



('france', [100, 22])


The max() function can work on python "iterables" which is a fancy word for anything that can be cycled or looped through. Thus it cycles or loops through the thing you put into it and spits out the item that's the highest.



But how does it judge which tuple is highest? Which is higher: France or Germany? You have to specify a key (some specification for how to judge each item). The key=lambda etc specifies a function that given an item (x), judge that item based on x[1][0]. In this instance if the item is ('france', [100, 22]) then x[1][0] is 100. So the x[1][0] of each item is compared and the item with the highest one is returned.



The next() and iter() functions are for python iterators. For example:



mytuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
myit = iter(mytuple)

print(next(myit)) #=> apple
print(next(myit)) #=> banana
print(next(myit)) #=> cherry






share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited Dec 4 at 14:46

























answered Dec 4 at 2:29









Conner

23k84568




23k84568







  • 1




    Yes this is exactly what i was looking for. Now I just need to spend 30 minutes figuring out what all that means.
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:36







  • 1




    @Conner Your comment would be far more useful if edited into your answer, just sayin'.
    – Ian Kemp
    Dec 4 at 8:41






  • 1




    Is it just because I'm old, crotchety and learned to program in BASIC and FORTRAN IV, that I think that using Python's max() function -- heck, using anything but arrays and comparison operators -- is cheating of the highest order?
    – RonJohn
    Dec 4 at 9:48






  • 4




    @RonJohn I'm old and cranky, but I'm also too lazy to rewrite something that already exists.
    – JollyJoker
    Dec 4 at 11:49






  • 2




    @JollyJoker you're a student ("new to programming and currently taking a CSC 110 class"), and thus need to write for yourself -- at least once -- your own min(), max(), bubble sort, quicksort, linked list, binary tree, hashing, etc implementations.
    – RonJohn
    Dec 4 at 14:03












  • 1




    Yes this is exactly what i was looking for. Now I just need to spend 30 minutes figuring out what all that means.
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:36







  • 1




    @Conner Your comment would be far more useful if edited into your answer, just sayin'.
    – Ian Kemp
    Dec 4 at 8:41






  • 1




    Is it just because I'm old, crotchety and learned to program in BASIC and FORTRAN IV, that I think that using Python's max() function -- heck, using anything but arrays and comparison operators -- is cheating of the highest order?
    – RonJohn
    Dec 4 at 9:48






  • 4




    @RonJohn I'm old and cranky, but I'm also too lazy to rewrite something that already exists.
    – JollyJoker
    Dec 4 at 11:49






  • 2




    @JollyJoker you're a student ("new to programming and currently taking a CSC 110 class"), and thus need to write for yourself -- at least once -- your own min(), max(), bubble sort, quicksort, linked list, binary tree, hashing, etc implementations.
    – RonJohn
    Dec 4 at 14:03







1




1




Yes this is exactly what i was looking for. Now I just need to spend 30 minutes figuring out what all that means.
– Luke Kelly
Dec 4 at 2:36





Yes this is exactly what i was looking for. Now I just need to spend 30 minutes figuring out what all that means.
– Luke Kelly
Dec 4 at 2:36





1




1




@Conner Your comment would be far more useful if edited into your answer, just sayin'.
– Ian Kemp
Dec 4 at 8:41




@Conner Your comment would be far more useful if edited into your answer, just sayin'.
– Ian Kemp
Dec 4 at 8:41




1




1




Is it just because I'm old, crotchety and learned to program in BASIC and FORTRAN IV, that I think that using Python's max() function -- heck, using anything but arrays and comparison operators -- is cheating of the highest order?
– RonJohn
Dec 4 at 9:48




Is it just because I'm old, crotchety and learned to program in BASIC and FORTRAN IV, that I think that using Python's max() function -- heck, using anything but arrays and comparison operators -- is cheating of the highest order?
– RonJohn
Dec 4 at 9:48




4




4




@RonJohn I'm old and cranky, but I'm also too lazy to rewrite something that already exists.
– JollyJoker
Dec 4 at 11:49




@RonJohn I'm old and cranky, but I'm also too lazy to rewrite something that already exists.
– JollyJoker
Dec 4 at 11:49




2




2




@JollyJoker you're a student ("new to programming and currently taking a CSC 110 class"), and thus need to write for yourself -- at least once -- your own min(), max(), bubble sort, quicksort, linked list, binary tree, hashing, etc implementations.
– RonJohn
Dec 4 at 14:03




@JollyJoker you're a student ("new to programming and currently taking a CSC 110 class"), and thus need to write for yourself -- at least once -- your own min(), max(), bubble sort, quicksort, linked list, binary tree, hashing, etc implementations.
– RonJohn
Dec 4 at 14:03












up vote
7
down vote













Use the max() function, like so:



max(item[0] for item in county_dict.values()) #use item[1] for GDP!


Also try storing the values not in a list ([a, b]) but in a tuple ((a, b)).



Edit: Like iamanigeeit said in the comments, this works to give you the country name as well:



max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())





share|improve this answer






















  • So i have to pass back not just the countries population but also the countries name as well. Is there a way to get that info from what is given above?
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:11










  • @LukeKelly Well, you could get the name from the value returned by max() if the values are always different. A loop would also work but I would not recommend it.
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:15






  • 1




    max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:36










  • @iamanigeeit That works, nice! I would just swap the values of the first part to read: country, data[0] Other than that, awesome!
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:39










  • but tuples are compared from first element... that's why i put data[0] first
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:40














up vote
7
down vote













Use the max() function, like so:



max(item[0] for item in county_dict.values()) #use item[1] for GDP!


Also try storing the values not in a list ([a, b]) but in a tuple ((a, b)).



Edit: Like iamanigeeit said in the comments, this works to give you the country name as well:



max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())





share|improve this answer






















  • So i have to pass back not just the countries population but also the countries name as well. Is there a way to get that info from what is given above?
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:11










  • @LukeKelly Well, you could get the name from the value returned by max() if the values are always different. A loop would also work but I would not recommend it.
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:15






  • 1




    max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:36










  • @iamanigeeit That works, nice! I would just swap the values of the first part to read: country, data[0] Other than that, awesome!
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:39










  • but tuples are compared from first element... that's why i put data[0] first
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:40












up vote
7
down vote










up vote
7
down vote









Use the max() function, like so:



max(item[0] for item in county_dict.values()) #use item[1] for GDP!


Also try storing the values not in a list ([a, b]) but in a tuple ((a, b)).



Edit: Like iamanigeeit said in the comments, this works to give you the country name as well:



max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())





share|improve this answer














Use the max() function, like so:



max(item[0] for item in county_dict.values()) #use item[1] for GDP!


Also try storing the values not in a list ([a, b]) but in a tuple ((a, b)).



Edit: Like iamanigeeit said in the comments, this works to give you the country name as well:



max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())






share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited Dec 4 at 2:42

























answered Dec 4 at 2:10









Ethan K

307212




307212











  • So i have to pass back not just the countries population but also the countries name as well. Is there a way to get that info from what is given above?
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:11










  • @LukeKelly Well, you could get the name from the value returned by max() if the values are always different. A loop would also work but I would not recommend it.
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:15






  • 1




    max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:36










  • @iamanigeeit That works, nice! I would just swap the values of the first part to read: country, data[0] Other than that, awesome!
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:39










  • but tuples are compared from first element... that's why i put data[0] first
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:40
















  • So i have to pass back not just the countries population but also the countries name as well. Is there a way to get that info from what is given above?
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:11










  • @LukeKelly Well, you could get the name from the value returned by max() if the values are always different. A loop would also work but I would not recommend it.
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:15






  • 1




    max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:36










  • @iamanigeeit That works, nice! I would just swap the values of the first part to read: country, data[0] Other than that, awesome!
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:39










  • but tuples are compared from first element... that's why i put data[0] first
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:40















So i have to pass back not just the countries population but also the countries name as well. Is there a way to get that info from what is given above?
– Luke Kelly
Dec 4 at 2:11




So i have to pass back not just the countries population but also the countries name as well. Is there a way to get that info from what is given above?
– Luke Kelly
Dec 4 at 2:11












@LukeKelly Well, you could get the name from the value returned by max() if the values are always different. A loop would also work but I would not recommend it.
– Ethan K
Dec 4 at 2:15




@LukeKelly Well, you could get the name from the value returned by max() if the values are always different. A loop would also work but I would not recommend it.
– Ethan K
Dec 4 at 2:15




1




1




max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())
– iamanigeeit
Dec 4 at 2:36




max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())
– iamanigeeit
Dec 4 at 2:36












@iamanigeeit That works, nice! I would just swap the values of the first part to read: country, data[0] Other than that, awesome!
– Ethan K
Dec 4 at 2:39




@iamanigeeit That works, nice! I would just swap the values of the first part to read: country, data[0] Other than that, awesome!
– Ethan K
Dec 4 at 2:39












but tuples are compared from first element... that's why i put data[0] first
– iamanigeeit
Dec 4 at 2:40




but tuples are compared from first element... that's why i put data[0] first
– iamanigeeit
Dec 4 at 2:40










up vote
6
down vote













An efficient solution to get the key with the highest value: you can use the max function this way:



highCountry = max(worldInfo, key=lambda k: worldInfo[k][0])


The key argument is a function that specifies what values you want to use to determine the max.max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())



And obviously :



highPop = worldInfo[highCountry][0]





share|improve this answer


















  • 1




    Correction - I used a generator comprension, which generates the values lazily, so it is not slow (or less efficient). However, great idea using max() with key for sorting!
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:29










  • I'm using both of the provided comments to fix this . highCountry = max(worldInfo, key=lambda k: worldInfo[k][0]) highPop = max(item[0] for item in worldInfo.values()) #use item[1] for GDP! Is there any reason I shouldn't' do this?
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:31











  • Indeed @EthanK, however you can't get the key efficiently. :)
    – Axel Puig
    Dec 4 at 2:37











  • @LukeKelly once you have the key, you can directly access the corresponding value, it is more efficient. See my edited answer.
    – Axel Puig
    Dec 4 at 2:37










  • unless it's Python 2, then we'd need .itervalues() and .iteritems()
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:38














up vote
6
down vote













An efficient solution to get the key with the highest value: you can use the max function this way:



highCountry = max(worldInfo, key=lambda k: worldInfo[k][0])


The key argument is a function that specifies what values you want to use to determine the max.max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())



And obviously :



highPop = worldInfo[highCountry][0]





share|improve this answer


















  • 1




    Correction - I used a generator comprension, which generates the values lazily, so it is not slow (or less efficient). However, great idea using max() with key for sorting!
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:29










  • I'm using both of the provided comments to fix this . highCountry = max(worldInfo, key=lambda k: worldInfo[k][0]) highPop = max(item[0] for item in worldInfo.values()) #use item[1] for GDP! Is there any reason I shouldn't' do this?
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:31











  • Indeed @EthanK, however you can't get the key efficiently. :)
    – Axel Puig
    Dec 4 at 2:37











  • @LukeKelly once you have the key, you can directly access the corresponding value, it is more efficient. See my edited answer.
    – Axel Puig
    Dec 4 at 2:37










  • unless it's Python 2, then we'd need .itervalues() and .iteritems()
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:38












up vote
6
down vote










up vote
6
down vote









An efficient solution to get the key with the highest value: you can use the max function this way:



highCountry = max(worldInfo, key=lambda k: worldInfo[k][0])


The key argument is a function that specifies what values you want to use to determine the max.max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())



And obviously :



highPop = worldInfo[highCountry][0]





share|improve this answer














An efficient solution to get the key with the highest value: you can use the max function this way:



highCountry = max(worldInfo, key=lambda k: worldInfo[k][0])


The key argument is a function that specifies what values you want to use to determine the max.max(data[0], country for country, data in country_dict.items())



And obviously :



highPop = worldInfo[highCountry][0]






share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited Dec 4 at 2:45

























answered Dec 4 at 2:16









Axel Puig

669312




669312







  • 1




    Correction - I used a generator comprension, which generates the values lazily, so it is not slow (or less efficient). However, great idea using max() with key for sorting!
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:29










  • I'm using both of the provided comments to fix this . highCountry = max(worldInfo, key=lambda k: worldInfo[k][0]) highPop = max(item[0] for item in worldInfo.values()) #use item[1] for GDP! Is there any reason I shouldn't' do this?
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:31











  • Indeed @EthanK, however you can't get the key efficiently. :)
    – Axel Puig
    Dec 4 at 2:37











  • @LukeKelly once you have the key, you can directly access the corresponding value, it is more efficient. See my edited answer.
    – Axel Puig
    Dec 4 at 2:37










  • unless it's Python 2, then we'd need .itervalues() and .iteritems()
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:38












  • 1




    Correction - I used a generator comprension, which generates the values lazily, so it is not slow (or less efficient). However, great idea using max() with key for sorting!
    – Ethan K
    Dec 4 at 2:29










  • I'm using both of the provided comments to fix this . highCountry = max(worldInfo, key=lambda k: worldInfo[k][0]) highPop = max(item[0] for item in worldInfo.values()) #use item[1] for GDP! Is there any reason I shouldn't' do this?
    – Luke Kelly
    Dec 4 at 2:31











  • Indeed @EthanK, however you can't get the key efficiently. :)
    – Axel Puig
    Dec 4 at 2:37











  • @LukeKelly once you have the key, you can directly access the corresponding value, it is more efficient. See my edited answer.
    – Axel Puig
    Dec 4 at 2:37










  • unless it's Python 2, then we'd need .itervalues() and .iteritems()
    – iamanigeeit
    Dec 4 at 2:38







1




1




Correction - I used a generator comprension, which generates the values lazily, so it is not slow (or less efficient). However, great idea using max() with key for sorting!
– Ethan K
Dec 4 at 2:29




Correction - I used a generator comprension, which generates the values lazily, so it is not slow (or less efficient). However, great idea using max() with key for sorting!
– Ethan K
Dec 4 at 2:29












I'm using both of the provided comments to fix this . highCountry = max(worldInfo, key=lambda k: worldInfo[k][0]) highPop = max(item[0] for item in worldInfo.values()) #use item[1] for GDP! Is there any reason I shouldn't' do this?
– Luke Kelly
Dec 4 at 2:31





I'm using both of the provided comments to fix this . highCountry = max(worldInfo, key=lambda k: worldInfo[k][0]) highPop = max(item[0] for item in worldInfo.values()) #use item[1] for GDP! Is there any reason I shouldn't' do this?
– Luke Kelly
Dec 4 at 2:31













Indeed @EthanK, however you can't get the key efficiently. :)
– Axel Puig
Dec 4 at 2:37





Indeed @EthanK, however you can't get the key efficiently. :)
– Axel Puig
Dec 4 at 2:37













@LukeKelly once you have the key, you can directly access the corresponding value, it is more efficient. See my edited answer.
– Axel Puig
Dec 4 at 2:37




@LukeKelly once you have the key, you can directly access the corresponding value, it is more efficient. See my edited answer.
– Axel Puig
Dec 4 at 2:37












unless it's Python 2, then we'd need .itervalues() and .iteritems()
– iamanigeeit
Dec 4 at 2:38




unless it's Python 2, then we'd need .itervalues() and .iteritems()
– iamanigeeit
Dec 4 at 2:38

















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