Python Convert Dictionary Values to List

1. Introduction

Python dictionaries are powerful containers that store data in key-value pairs. Sometimes, we are interested only in the values and may need to work with them separately, often as a list. Whether for manipulation, iteration, or function arguments, knowing how to convert dictionary values to a list is a useful skill in Python programming. This blog post will explain how to perform this conversion.

Definition

In Python, converting dictionary values to a list entails creating a list that consists solely of the values from the dictionary. The order of elements in the list will correspond to the order of insertion in the dictionary, which is preserved in Python 3.7 and later. The values() method is used to access the values of a dictionary, and then a list can be created from this view object.

2. Program Steps

1. Have a dictionary from which you want to extract the values.

2. Use the values() method on the dictionary to get a view of the values.

3. Convert this view into a list with the list() constructor function.

4. The resulting list will contain all the values from the dictionary.

3. Code Program

# Step 1: Create a dictionary
my_dict = {'name': 'John', 'age': 30, 'city': 'New York'}

# Step 2: Access the values of the dictionary using the values() method
dict_values = my_dict.values()

# Step 3: Convert the values to a list
values_list = list(dict_values)

# Step 4: Print out the list of values
print(values_list)

Output:

['John', 30, 'New York']

Explanation:

1. my_dict is a dictionary that contains some personal information.

2. dict_values is a view object which reflects the values of my_dict, retrieved by my_dict.values().

3. values_list is a list that is created by converting dict_values using the list() constructor. This list now contains all the values from my_dict.

4. When print(values_list) is called, it outputs the list of values, confirming that the dictionary values have been successfully converted to a list.