Function to determine the top 10 occurrences of a particular metric

top_x_occurrences.py

get_top_x_occurrences('curse_used',curses,10)
get_top_x_occurrences('laugh_used',laughs,10)
get_top_x_occurrences('link_used',links,10)

def get_top_x_occurrences(special_key,list_of_dicts,occurrence_number):
	"""
	function to find the top occurrences of a given instance
	for instance top x emojis
	top x curse words
	top x laughing expressions

	:param special_key: the key in the dictionary that contains the text
	:special_key type: string

	:param list_of_dicts: list of dictionaries containing the special_key
	:list_of_dicts type: list

	:param occurrence_number: top x number to return 
	:occurrence_number type: int

	:returns: a list indicating the most common occurrences in list_of_dicts
	:rtype: list of length occurrence_number or shorter
	"""
	results = []
	results_dict = {}
	for lil_d in list_of_dicts:
		if special_key in lil_d.keys():
			these_instances = lil_d[special_key]
			for this_instance in these_instances:
				z=this_instance
				if not z in results_dict.keys():
					results_dict[z] = 1
				else:
					results_dict[z] += 1


	num = len(results_dict.keys())

	#http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7197315/5-maximum-values-in-a-python-dictionary
	if num < occurrence_number:
		results = sorted(results_dict, key=results_dict.get, reverse=True)[:num]
	else:
		results = sorted(results_dict, key=results_dict.get, reverse=True)[:occurrence_number]

	return results