Using Python's max to return two equally large values

Question

I\'m using Python\'s max function to find the largest integer in a dictionary called count, and the corresponding key (not quite sure if I\'m saying it properly

Answer 1

Fast single pass:

a = { 'a': 120, 'b': 120, 'c': 100 }
z = [0]
while a:
    key, value = a.popitem()
    if value > z[0]:
        z = [value,[key]]
    elif value == z[0]:
        z[1].append(key)

print z
#output:
[120, ['a', 'b']]

And an amusing way with defaultdict:

import collections
b = collections.defaultdict(list)
for key, value in a.iteritems():
    b[value].append(key)
print max(b.items())
#output:
(120, ['a', 'b'])