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Python Data Structures

The document provides a comparison of common Python data structures: Lists, Tuples, Dictionaries, Sets, and Arrays, highlighting their features, advantages, disadvantages, and best use cases. Each data structure is described in terms of its characteristics, performance, and scenarios where it is most effective. The choice of data structure is emphasized as dependent on specific problem requirements, including performance and memory considerations.

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saiakkina
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2 views

Python Data Structures

The document provides a comparison of common Python data structures: Lists, Tuples, Dictionaries, Sets, and Arrays, highlighting their features, advantages, disadvantages, and best use cases. Each data structure is described in terms of its characteristics, performance, and scenarios where it is most effective. The choice of data structure is emphasized as dependent on specific problem requirements, including performance and memory considerations.

Uploaded by

saiakkina
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Below is a tabular format explaining some common data structures in Python, along

with their features, advantages, disadvantages, and best use cases:

Data Structure Features Advantages Disadvantages Best Use Cases


Lists - Ordered collection
- Mutable
- Can store duplicate elements - Flexible
- Dynamic resizing
- Can be heterogeneous - Linear time complexity for element search and deletion
- General-purpose
- When order matters
- When elements can be changed frequently
Tuples - Ordered collection
- Immutable
- Can store duplicate elements - Immutable, hence safer for storing constants
- Faster than lists for iteration and indexing - Limited functionality due to
immutability
- Fixed size - Storing constants
- Returning multiple values from functions
Dictionaries - Unordered collection of key-value pairs
- Keys are unique and immutable
- Values can be mutable - Fast lookup (constant time complexity on average)
- Efficient for key-based operations
- Dynamic resizing - Unordered, so not suitable for scenarios requiring
ordered data - Storing data with unique identifiers
- Quick lookups based on keys
- Mapping between unique keys and values
Sets - Unordered collection of unique elements
- Mutable
- Can perform set operations (union, intersection, difference) - Fast membership
testing (constant time complexity on average)
- Automatic elimination of duplicate elements - Unordered, so not suitable for
scenarios requiring ordered data
- Not suitable for scenarios requiring duplicate elements - Finding unique
elements in a collection
- Performing set operations
- Removing duplicates from a collection
Arrays (from array module) - Homogeneous collection of elements with fixed size
- More memory efficient than lists for certain data types - Memory efficiency
- Faster access and manipulation for numerical data - Fixed size
- Limited functionality compared to lists and other built-in data structures -
Storing and manipulating large sequences of numerical data efficiently
Remember, the choice of data structure depends on the specific requirements of your
problem, including considerations like performance, memory usage, and the
operations you need to perform frequently.

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