Python | Get first N key:value pairs in given dictionary

Given a dictionary, the task is to get N key:value pairs from given dictionary. This type of problem can be useful while some cases, like fetching first N values in web development.

Note that the given dictionary is unordered, the first N pairs will not be same here all the time. In case, you need to maintain order in your problem, you can use ordered dictionary.

Code #1: Using itertools.islice() method

# Python program to get N key:value pairs in given dictionary
# using itertools.islice() method

import itertools

# Initialize dictionary
test_dict = {'Geeks' : 1, 'For':2,  'is' : 3, 'best' : 4, 'for' : 5, 'CS' : 6}

# printing original dictionary
print("The original dictionary : " +  str(test_dict))

# Initialize limit
N = 3

# Using islice() + items()
# Get first N items in dictionary
out = dict(itertools.islice(test_dict.items(), N))

# printing result
print("Dictionary limited by K is : " + str(out))

Output:

The original dictionary : {‘for’: 5, ‘best’: 4, ‘CS’: 6, ‘is’: 3, ‘Geeks’: 1, ‘For’: 2}
Dictionary limited by K is : {‘for’: 5, ‘best’: 4, ‘CS’: 6}

Code #2: Using slicing on dictionary item list

# Python program to get N key:value pairs in given dictionary
# using list slicing

# Initialize dictionary
test_dict = {'Geeks' : 1, 'For':2,  'is' : 3, 'best' : 4, 'for' : 5, 'CS' : 6}

# printing original dictionary
print("The original dictionary : " +  str(test_dict))

# Initialize limit
N = 3

# Using items() + list slicing
# Get first K items in dictionary
out = dict(list(test_dict.items())[0: N])

# printing result
print("Dictionary limited by K is : " + str(out))

Output:

The original dictionary : {‘best’: 3, ‘gfg’: 1, ‘is’: 2, ‘CS’: 5, ‘for’: 4}
Dictionary limited by K is : {‘best’: 3, ‘gfg’: 1, ‘is’: 2}