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How Do I Find Duplicate Keys in Python?

Published in Python Programming 2 mins read

You can find duplicate keys in Python dictionaries by using the collections.Counter class. This class allows you to count the occurrences of each key in your dictionary.

Here's how you can use it:

  1. Import the collections module:

    from collections import Counter
  2. Create a dictionary:

    my_dict = {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 1, 'd': 3, 'e': 2}
  3. Use Counter to count the keys:

    key_counts = Counter(my_dict.keys())
  4. Identify duplicate keys:

    duplicate_keys = [key for key, count in key_counts.items() if count > 1]

Example:

from collections import Counter

my_dict = {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 1, 'd': 3, 'e': 2}

key_counts = Counter(my_dict.keys())
duplicate_keys = [key for key, count in key_counts.items() if count > 1]

print(f"Duplicate keys: {duplicate_keys}")

Output:

Duplicate keys: ['a', 'b', 'c', 'e']

This code will print a list containing the duplicate keys found in the dictionary.

Practical Insight:

You can use this method to identify and handle duplicate keys in your dictionary. This is useful for tasks like data cleaning, data validation, or preventing unexpected behavior in your code.

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