Modules in Python: defaultdict
Explore how to use Python's defaultdict from the collections module to handle missing keys automatically. Understand different default_factory options like int, list, or lambda to simplify counting and grouping tasks while avoiding KeyErrors.
Overview of defaultdict
The collections module has a handy tool called defaultdict. The
defaultdict is a subclass of Python’s dict that accepts a
default_factory as its primary argument. The default_factory is usually a Python type, such as int or list, but we can also use a function or a lambda.
Simple example of counting the occurrence of words
Let’s start by creating a regular Python dictionary ...