search times even when working with large data set the downside is that creating the dictionary takes longer than using something like list because the computer is busy sorting the entries figure - diction ary places entries in sorted order type colors["sarah"and press enter you see the color associated with sarahyellowas shown in figure - using string as keyrather than using numeric indexmakes the code easier to read and makes it self-documenting to an extent by making your code more readabledictionaries save you considerable time in the long run (which is why they're so popularhoweverthe convenience of dictionary comes at the cost of additional creation time and higher use of resourcesso you have trade-offs to consider figure - dictionaries make value access easy and selfdocumenting type colors keysand press enter the dictionary presents list of the keys it containsas shown in figure - you can use these keys to automate access to the dictionary