Q: Why is `.items()` important in my PhoneBook application?

[Rajeev Bagra]

Q: Is items a keyword in Python?

A:
No. items is not a Python keyword.
It is a dictionary method, not a reserved word in the Python language.

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Q: So what exactly is items()?

A:
items() is a built-in method of the dictionary (dict) type in Python.
It returns all the key–value pairs stored in a dictionary.

Example:

d = {"Alice": 123, "Bob": 456}
print(d.items())

Output:

dict_items([('Alice', 123), ('Bob', 456)])

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Q: Can I use the word items as a variable name?

A:
Yes, you can because it is not a keyword.
But it is not recommended, since you may accidentally override the dictionary method in your local scope.

Example (allowed but bad practice):

items = 10   # valid, but shadows dict.items()

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Q: How is items() used in real code?

A:
It is often used when you want to loop through both the key and the value of a dictionary.

Example:

phonebook = {"Alice": ["111", "222"], "Bob": ["333"]}

for name, numbers in phonebook.items():
    print(name, numbers)

Output:

Alice ['111', '222']
Bob ['333']

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Q: What is the difference between keys(), values(), and items()?

Method	Returns	Use Case
keys()	All dictionary keys	When you only need names/keys
values()	All dictionary values	When you only need the data
items()	Key–value pairs as tuples	When you need both key AND value

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A:
It lets you load name–number pairs from the file like this:

for name, numbers in filehandler.load_file().items():
    for number in numbers:
        phonebook.add_number(name, number)

Here:

• name = dictionary key (e.g., "Alice")
• numbers = list of phone numbers (e.g., ["123", "456"])

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