How to properly eliminate elements in dictionary until one string remains

Question

I really need help on this

def get_winner (dict_winner):
    new_dict = {} 
    for winner in dict_winner:
        first_letter = winner[0]
        value = dict_         


        

Answer 1

Your current code counts the number of times each candidate is the first on the list. It doesn't "eliminate" anyone, it just gives the appearance of doing so since one of your candidates gets no first-place votes.

I suggest doing it recursively. Your base case is "a candidate gets over 50% of the vote". Something like this:

def get_winner(vote_dict)
    total_votes = sum(vote_dict.values())
    votes_by_candidate = defaultdict(int)    # This makes your if/else block redundant

    for vote_pattern in vote_dict:
        votes_by_candidate[vote_pattern[0]] += vote_dict[vote_pattern]

    for candidate in votes_by_candidate:
         if votes_by_candidate[candidate] * 2 > total_votes:
             return candidate

    new_dict = defaultdict(int)
    eliminated = min(votes_by_candidate, key=votes_by_candidate.get)

    for vote_pattern in vote_dict:
        new_pattern = [candidate for candidate in vote_pattern if candidate != eliminated]
        new_dict[new_pattern] += vote_dict[vote_pattern]

    return get_winner(new_dict)

Answer 2

My solution - in one step:

def get_winner(candidates):
    winners = dict.fromkeys(map(lambda f: f[0] for f in candidates.keys()))
    for cand, votes in candidates.iteritems(): 
        winners[cand[0]]+=votes
    return [winner for winner, vote in winners.iteritems() if vote ==max(winners.values())]

It is not fancy, but it is simple :-)