How do you take values from dictionaries in python for calculations?

Question

I have to answer the following question:

8. We have a dictionary containing several rectangular islands:

islands = {
    "Banana island"    : (3,5,7,6),
    "Mango island"     : (10,3,19,4),
    "Pineapple island" : (8,8,9,20),
    "Coconut island"   : (2,13,5,9) 
}

Write code to calculate which island has the minimum area, using your land_rectangle_area function.

I have created a function for the area:

def land_rectangle_area(x1, y1, x2, y2):   
    area=abs((int(x1)-int(x2))*(int(y1)-int(y2)))
    return(area)

I am unsure how I proceed with this question from here?

Answer 1

There you go. Just iterate through the islands, finding their area and update your answer if the current area is less than minimum.

def land_rectangle_area(x1, y1, x2, y2):   
    area=abs((int(x1)-int(x2))*(int(y1)-int(y2)))
    return(area)

islands = {
    "Banana island"    : (3,5,7,6),
    "Mango island"     : (10,3,19,4),
    "Pineapple island" : (8,8,9,20),
    "Coconut island"   : (2,13,5,9) 
}
minimum = float('Inf') # equivalent to infinity
ans=''
for i in islands:
    a = land_rectangle_area(*islands[i])
    if a<minimum:
        minimum = a
        ans = i
print (ans,minimum)

Output :

('Banana island', 4)