From c1f046d1961cceb30775828221ee5ff26b5c936b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: jbranchaud <jbranchaud@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2026 00:20:58 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] Add Iterate Over A Dictionary as a Python TIL

---
 README.md                           |  3 ++-
 python/iterate-over-a-dictionary.md | 34 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 36 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 python/iterate-over-a-dictionary.md

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b3ff05b..c165851 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ working across different projects via [VisualMode](https://www.visualmode.dev/).
 
 For a steady stream of TILs, [sign up for my newsletter](https://visualmode.kit.com/newsletter).
 
-_1750 TILs and counting..._
+_1751 TILs and counting..._
 
 See some of the other learning resources I work on:
 
@@ -1047,6 +1047,7 @@ If you've learned something here, support my efforts writing daily TILs by
 - [Easy Key-Value Aggregates With defaultdict](python/easy-key-value-aggregates-with-defaultdict.md)
 - [Install With PIP For Specific Interpreter](python/install-with-pip-for-specific-interpreter.md)
 - [Iterate First N Items From Enumerable](python/iterate-first-n-items-from-enumerable.md)
+- [Iterate Over A Dictionary](python/iterate-over-a-dictionary.md)
 - [Keep A Tally With collections.Counter](python/keep-a-tally-with-collections-counter.md)
 - [Load A File Into The Python REPL](python/load-a-file-into-the-python-repl.md)
 - [Override The Boolean Context Of A Class](python/override-the-boolean-context-of-a-class.md)
diff --git a/python/iterate-over-a-dictionary.md b/python/iterate-over-a-dictionary.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..03b65d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/iterate-over-a-dictionary.md
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+# Iterate Over A Dictionary
+
+Let's say we have a `dict` that contains counts of occurrences for each word in
+some sample text:
+
+```python
+words_frequency = {
+    "the": 4,
+    "a": 3,
+    "dog": 1,
+    "bone": 1,
+    "wants": 1,
+    ...
+}
+```
+
+Here is how we can iterate over the `dict`, accessing both the keys and values:
+
+```python
+for word, count in word_frequency.items():
+    print(f"- {word} appears {count} time{'' if count == 1 else 's'}")
+```
+
+Using the
+[`items()`](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#dict.items) method,
+we're able to access both _key_ and _value_ with the for loop as it iterates.
+
+Another approach is to loop directly on the `dict` which implicitly surfaces the
+_key_ for iteration. This can then be used to get the value from the `dict`:
+
+```python
+for word in word_frequency:
+    print(f"- {word}: {word_frequency[word]}
+```