Create a function named most_classes that takes a dictionary of teachers. Each key is a teacher's name and their value i

Question

 my_dict = {'Jason Seifer': ['Ruby Foundations', 'Ruby on Rails Forms', 'Technology Foundations'],
  'Kenneth Love': ['Python Basics', 'Python Collections']}

def most_classes(my_dict):
    most_class = "" #holds the name of teacher with the most class
    max_count = 0 #max counter for classes

    # For loop for most classes
    for key in my_dict:
        if len(my_dict[key]) > max_count: 
            max_count = len(my_dict[key]) 
            most_class = key 
    return most_class

Create a function named most_classes that takes a dictionary of teachers. Each key is a teacher's name and their value is a list of classes they've taught. most_classes should return the teacher with the most classes.

I have my code attached and it works. I don't understand where in the code does it actually decide which key has the most value and returns the amount with the most value.

Secondly how come I have to create the variable most_classes = key and just can't return key

Answer 1 · 2015-12-29T06:33:35Z

December 29, 2015 6:33am

Hi Kevin,

for key in my_dict:    # loops through each key in my_dict
    if len(my_dict[key]) > max_count:    # uses key to find its value, measures length & compares to max_count
        max_count = len(my_dict[key])    # if the length was greater than max_count, update the max_count value
        most_class = key                            # set the most_class variable to the teacher name(key) with the most classes
return most_class                                   # returns most_class --> teacher's name or key in my_dict

The code decides which key has the highest value when it compares len(my_dict[key]) to max_count. By writing my_dict[key] you get the list of classes each teacher has as a value and then you call len() to get the number of items in the list. This number is then compared to the max_count. If it is greater than max_count you change to max_count to that number and then keep track of the teacher with the most classes by assigning a thier name to the most_class variable.

You need to keep track of the current teacher with the most classes and that is why you return the most_class variable at the end of the loop. You're basically are returning a key but just the one that you identified as having the most classes in the for loop.

You're using the two variables: most_class and max_count to keep track of the information you're looking for while running your for loop. By updating these variables when you find a teacher(key) with more classes(len(value)) you can then return the teacher with the most classes when the for loop is finished.

Hope that helps

Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Looking to learn something new?

Kevin Her

Kevin Her

Create a function named most_classes that takes a dictionary of teachers. Each key is a teacher's name and their value i

1 Answer

Zachary Kent

Zachary Kent

Zachary Kent

Zachary Kent

Haider Ali

Haider Ali