Welcome to PyTrie’s documentation!

pytrie is a pure Python implementation of the trie (prefix tree) data structure.

A trie is a tree data structure that is used to store a mapping where the keys are sequences, usually strings over an alphabet. In addition to implementing the mapping interface, tries facilitate finding the items for a given prefix, and vice versa, finding the items whose keys are prefixes of a given key K. As a common special case, finding the longest-prefix item is also supported.

Algorithmically, tries are more efficient than binary search trees (BSTs) both in lookup time and memory when they contain many keys sharing relatively few prefixes. Unlike hash tables, trie keys don’t need to be hashable. In the current implementation, a key can be any finite iterable with hashable elements.

Usage

>>> from pytrie import SortedStringTrie as Trie
>>> t = Trie(an=0, ant=1, all=2, allot=3, alloy=4, aloe=5, are=6, be=7)
>>> t
SortedStringTrie({'all': 2, 'allot': 3, 'alloy': 4, 'aloe': 5, 'an': 0, 'ant': 1, 'are': 6, 'be': 7})
>>> t.keys(prefix='al')
['all', 'allot', 'alloy', 'aloe']
>>> t.items(prefix='an')
[('an', 0), ('ant', 1)]
>>> t.longest_prefix('antonym')
'ant'
>>> t.longest_prefix_item('allstar')
('all', 2)
>>> t.longest_prefix_value('area', default='N/A')
6
>>> t.longest_prefix('alsa')
Traceback (most recent call last):
    ...
KeyError
>>> t.longest_prefix_value('alsa', default=-1)
-1
>>> list(t.iter_prefixes('allotment'))
['all', 'allot']
>>> list(t.iter_prefix_items('antonym'))
[('an', 0), ('ant', 1)]

Reference documentation

Classes

class pytrie.Trie(*args, **kwargs)

Bases: collections.abc.MutableMapping

Base trie class.

As with regular dicts, keys are not necessarily returned sorted. Use SortedTrie if sorting is required.

KeyFactory

alias of builtins.tuple

NodeFactory

Callable for creating new trie nodes.

alias of Node

__init__(*args, **kwargs)

Create a new trie.

Parameters are the same with dict().

classmethod fromkeys(iterable, value=None)

Create a new trie with keys from iterable and values set to value.

Parameters are the same with dict.fromkeys().

class pytrie.StringTrie(*args, **kwargs)

Bases: pytrie.Trie

A more appropriate for string keys Trie.

class pytrie.SortedTrie(*args, **kwargs)

Bases: pytrie.Trie

A Trie that returns its keys (and associated values/items) sorted.

class pytrie.SortedStringTrie(*args, **kwargs)

Bases: pytrie.SortedTrie, pytrie.StringTrie

A Trie that is both a StringTrie and a SortedTrie

Trie methods

The following methods are specific to tries; they are not part of the mapping API.

Trie.longest_prefix(key[, default])

Return the longest key in this trie that is a prefix of key.

If the trie doesn’t contain any prefix of key:
  • if default is given, return it
  • otherwise raise KeyError
Trie.longest_prefix_value(key[, default])

Return the value associated with the longest key in this trie that is a prefix of key.

If the trie doesn’t contain any prefix of key:
  • if default is given, return it
  • otherwise raise KeyError
Trie.longest_prefix_item(key[, default])

Return the item ((key,value) tuple) associated with the longest key in this trie that is a prefix of key.

If the trie doesn’t contain any prefix of key:
  • if default is given, return it
  • otherwise raise KeyError
Trie.iter_prefixes(key)

Return an iterator over the keys of this trie that are prefixes of key.

Trie.iter_prefix_values(key)

Return an iterator over the values of this trie that are associated with keys that are prefixes of key.

Trie.iter_prefix_items(key)

Return an iterator over the items ((key,value) tuples) of this trie that are associated with keys that are prefixes of key.

Extended mapping API methods

The following methods extend the respective mapping API methods with an optional prefix parameter. If not None, only keys (or associated values/items) that start with prefix are returned.

Trie.keys(prefix=None)

Return a list of this trie’s keys.

Parameters:prefix – If not None, return only the keys prefixed by prefix.
Trie.values(prefix=None)

Return a list of this trie’s values.

Parameters:prefix – If not None, return only the values associated with keys prefixed by prefix.
Trie.items(prefix=None)

Return a list of this trie’s items ((key,value) tuples).

Parameters:prefix – If not None, return only the items associated with keys prefixed by prefix.
Trie.iterkeys(prefix=None)

Return an iterator over this trie’s keys.

Parameters:prefix – If not None, yield only the keys prefixed by prefix.
Trie.itervalues(prefix=None)

Return an iterator over this trie’s values.

Parameters:prefix – If not None, yield only the values associated with keys prefixed by prefix.
Trie.iteritems(prefix=None)

Return an iterator over this trie’s items ((key,value) tuples).

Parameters:prefix – If not None, yield only the items associated with keys prefixed by prefix.

Original mapping API methods

The following methods have the standard mapping signature and semantics.

Trie.__len__()
Trie.__bool__()
Trie.__iter__()
Trie.__contains__(key)
Trie.__getitem__(key)
Trie.__setitem__(key, value)
Trie.__delitem__(key)
Trie.__repr__()

Return repr(self).

Trie.clear() → None. Remove all items from D.
Trie.copy()

Internals

Tries are implemented as trees of Node instances. You don’t need to worry about them unless unless you want to extend or replace Node with a new node factory and bind it to Trie.NodeFactory.

class pytrie.Node(value=<class 'pytrie.NULL'>)

Bases: object

Trie node class.

Subclasses may extend it to replace ChildrenFactory with a different mapping class (e.g. sorteddict)

Variables:
  • value – The value of the key corresponding to this node or NULL if there is no such key.
  • children – A {key-part : child-node} mapping.
ChildrenFactory

alias of builtins.dict

Indices and tables