Getting second and third highest value in a dictionary -

dict = {'a':5 , 'b':4, 'c':3, 'd':3, 'e':1} 

second 'b' 4 times. joint third 'c' , 'd' 3 times. dictionary changes on time, say, 'f' added value of 3, third 'c', 'd', , 'f' 3 times.

just create gencomp of tuple value,key , sort it. print items

d = {'a':5 , 'b':4, 'c':3, 'd':3, 'e':1}  x = sorted(((v,k) k,v in d.items())) print(x[-2][1]) print(x[-3][1]) 

result:

b d 

(would fail if dict doesn't have @ least 3 items)

or directly key parameter (avoids data reordering)

x = sorted(d.items(),key=(lambda i: i[1])) print(x[-2][0]) print(x[-3][0]) 

result:

b d 

btw avoid using dict variable.

edit: since there several identical values, may want 2 second best values , associated letters. have differently. i'd create default list using key value , store in list, sort done in above code:

import collections  d = {'a':5 , 'b':4, 'c':3, 'd':3, 'e':1}  dd = collections.defaultdict(list)  k,v in d.items():     dd[v].append(k)  x = sorted(dd.items())  print(x[-2]) print(x[-3]) 

result:

(4, ['b']) (3, ['c', 'd'])