You are creating a Python script that will make use of user input contact names and their associated phone numbers. What Python data structure would be ideal for storing and accessing these associated values?

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Question restatement: You are creating a Python script that will make use of user input contact names and their associated phone numbers. What Python data structure would be ideal for storing and accessing these associated values?

Option 1: lists
- Lists are ordered collections of items, great for storing multiple values of the same type or related items in a sequence. However, to access a phone number by a contact name efficiently, you’d need to search the list or store pairs in a list of tuples, which adds complexity and reduces lookup speed. This makes lists less than ideal for direct name-to-number mapping.

Option 2: tuples
- Tuples are similar to lists but immutable. They can hold pairs or groups of values, but immutability means you cannot easily add or update contact entries after creation. For a contact directory where you want to look up numbers by name and potentially modify the data, tuples are not the best fit.

Option 3: dictionaries
- Dictionaries store key-value pairs, where each unique key maps to a value. This is a natural fit for name-to-phone-number mappings: you can quickly look up a number by entering the contact's name, and you can add, update, or remove entries efficiently. This directly supports the required association between names and numbers with fast access.

Option 4: strings
- Strings represent sequences of characters. While you could store a name and number in a single string, you would lose the direct, structured association and efficient lookup benefits. Parsing and splitting would be required for access, which is error-prone and inefficient for frequent lookups.

Summary of reasoning across options: The core need is a structure that maps a unique identifier (the contact name) to a value (the phone number) and supports fast retrieval by that key. Among the options, dictionaries provide the natural key-value mapping and efficient access, while the other structures either lack direct key-based access or impose immutability or parsing overhead that is unsuitable for a dynamic contact list.

ISOM 316 2 Coding for Business - Fall 2025 MidTerm Exam 2

You are creating a Python script that will make use of user input contact names and their associated phone numbers. What Python data structure would be ideal for storing and accessing these associated values?

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