How to count elements in a nested Python dictionary?

To count elements in a Nested Dictionary, we can use the Built-in function len(). With that, we can also use a function that recursively calls and calculates the elements in an arbitrary depth nested dictionary.

Count Elements in a Dictionary

Let us first create a Python Dictionary and count its values using the len() method. Here, we have included 4 key-value pairs in the Dictionary and displayed them. Product, Model, Units, and Available are keys of the Dictionary. Except the Units key, all are having String values −

Example

# Creating a Dictionary
myprod = {
	"Product":"Mobile",
	"Model": "XUT",
	"Units": 120,
	"Available": "Yes"
}

# Displaying the Dictionary
print(myprod)

# Count
print(len(myprod))

Output

{'Product': 'Mobile', 'Model': 'XUT', 'Units': 120, 'Available': 'Yes'}
4

Now, we will create a Nested Dictionary and count the elements.

Count Elements in a Nested Dictionary

To count elements in a nested dictionary, we have used the sum() function and calculated the dictionary values one-by-one within that. At the end, the count is displayed −

Example

# Creating a Nested Dictionary
myprod = {
	"Product1" : {
		"Name":"Mobile",
		"Model": "XUT",
		"Units": 120,
		"Available": "Yes"
	},
	"Product2" : {
		"Name":"SmartTV",
		"Model": "LG",
		"Units": 70,
		"Available": "Yes"
	},
	"Product3" : {
		"Name":"Laptop",
		"Model": "EEK",
		"Units": 90,
		"Available": "Yes"
	}
}

# Displaying the Nested Dictionary
print("Nested Dictionary = \n",myprod)

print("Count of elements in the Nested Dictionary = ",sum(len(v) for v in myprod.values()))

Output

Nested Dictionary = 
 {'Product1': {'Name': 'Mobile', 'Model': 'XUT', 'Units': 120, 'Available': 'Yes'}, 'Product2': {'Name': 'SmartTV', 'Model': 'LG', 'Units': 70, 'Available': 'Yes'}, 'Product3': {'Name': 'Laptop', 'Model': 'EEK', 'Units': 90, 'Available': 'Yes'}}
Count of elements in the Nested Dictionary =  12

Count Elements in an Arbitrary Depth Nested Dictionary

To count elements in an arbitrary depth nested dictionary, we have created a custom Python function and used for loop within it. The loop recursively calls and calculate the depth of the dictionary. At the end, it returns the length −

Example

# Creating a Nested Dictionary
myprod = {
	"Product" : {
		"Name":"Mobile",
		"Model":
		{
			'ModelName': 'Nord',
			'ModelColor': 'Silver',
			'ModelProcessor': 'Snapdragon'
		},
		"Units": 120,
		"Available": "Yes"
	}
}

# Function to calculate the Dictionary elements
def count(prod, c=0):
	for mykey in prod:
		if isinstance(prod[mykey], dict):
			# calls repeatedly
			c = count(prod[mykey], c + 1)
		else:
			c += 1
	return c

# Displaying the Nested Dictionary
print("Nested Dictionary = \n",myprod)

# Display the count of elements in the Nested Dictionary
print("Count of the Nested Dictionary = ",count(myprod))

Output

Nested Dictionary = 
 {'Product': {'Name': 'Mobile', 'Model': {'ModelName': 'Nord', 'ModelColor': 'Silver', 'ModelProcessor': 'Snapdragon'}, 'Units': 120, 'Available': 'Yes'}}
Count of the Nested Dictionary =  8

AmitDiwan

Updated on: 11-Aug-2022

15K+ Views

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