Dictionary comprehensions offer a succinct way to create dictionaries in Python. They are built in the same way as list comprehensions but with some exceptions.

Basic Dictionary Comprehension

At its heart, a basic dictionary comprehension lets you construct a new dictionary by applying an expression to each key-value pair in an iterable variable.

Syntax: {key_expression: value_expression for item in iterable}

What it does: For every item in iterable, it evaluates both key_expression and value_expression to create a new key-value pair in the dictionary.

Note

In contrast to lists, dictionaries require curly braces instead of square brackets. Additionally, in a dictionary comprehension, you specify both a key and a value separated by a colon, as in key:value, rather than just a single value.

Here, for each number x in the range 0 through 4, we create a key-value pair where the key is the number and the value is its square.

Dictionary Comprehension with Condition

This variation allows you to introduce a condition to your dictionary comprehension, functioning as a filter. Only items that meet the condition are processed and added to the new dictionary.

Syntax: {key_expression: value_expression for item in iterable if condition}

What it does: For every item in iterable, if the condition is True, it evaluates both key_expression and value_expression and adds the resulting key-value pair to the dictionary.

In this instance, we only construct key-value pairs for numbers from the range 0 through 5 if they're even. The value represents the square of the key.

Dictionary comprehensions, like list comprehentions, are a more efficient and "Pythonic" way to craft dictionaries, often proving quicker in execution when compared to traditional loop methods.