Python : how to find top n keys of a dictionary having largest values

Question

I want to find top two keys of a dictionary that have the largest values.

E.g.

aa={'a':10,'b':8,'c':25,'d':15,'e':12}

The output should be: ('c','d')

Answer 1

You can use most_common() function of Counter module. The function will sort your dictionary in the descending order of the values. You need to pass 2 as an argument to the the function to select top 2 keys. Here is an example:

>>> from collections import Counter
>>> aa={'a':10,'b':8,'c':25,'d':15,'e':12}
>>> keyss = set()
>>> for k,v in Counter(aa).most_common(2):
...     keyss.add(k)
...
>>> keyss
{'d', 'c'}