Create a dictionary with list comprehension

Use a dict comprehension (Python 2.7 and later):

{key: value for (key, value) in iterable}

Alternatively for simpler cases or earlier version of Python, use the dict constructor, e.g.:

pairs = [('a', 1), ('b', 2)]
dict(pairs)                         #=> {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
dict([(k, v+1) for k, v in pairs])  #=> {'a': 2, 'b': 3}

Given separate arrays of keys and values, use the dict constructor with zip:

keys = ['a', 'b']
values = [1, 2]
dict(zip(keys, values))  #=> {'a': 1, 'b': 2}

2) "zip'ped" from two separate iterables of keys/vals
dict(zip(list_of_keys, list_of_values))

In Python 3 and Python 2.7+, dictionary comprehensions look like the below:

d = {k:v for k, v in iterable}

For Python 2.6 or earlier, see fortran's answer.

In fact, you don't even need to iterate over the iterable if it already comprehends some kind of mapping, the dict constructor doing it graciously for you:

>>> ts = [(1, 2), (3, 4), (5, 6)]
>>> dict(ts)
{1: 2, 3: 4, 5: 6}
>>> gen = ((i, i+1) for i in range(1, 6, 2))
>>> gen
<generator object <genexpr> at 0xb7201c5c>
>>> dict(gen)
{1: 2, 3: 4, 5: 6}

Create a dictionary with list comprehension in Python

I like the Python list comprehension syntax.

Can it be used to create dictionaries too? For example, by iterating over pairs of keys and values:

mydict = {(k,v) for (k,v) in blah blah blah}

You're looking for the phrase "dict comprehension" - it's actually:

mydict = {k: v for k, v in iterable}

Assuming blah blah blah is an iterable of two-tuples - you're so close. Let's create some "blahs" like that:

blahs = [('blah0', 'blah'), ('blah1', 'blah'), ('blah2', 'blah'), ('blah3', 'blah')]

Dict comprehension syntax:

Now the syntax here is the mapping part. What makes this a dict comprehension instead of a set comprehension (which is what your pseudo-code approximates) is the colon, : like below:

mydict = {k: v for k, v in blahs}

And we see that it worked, and should retain insertion order as-of Python 3.7:

>>> mydict
{'blah0': 'blah', 'blah1': 'blah', 'blah2': 'blah', 'blah3': 'blah'}

In Python 2 and up to 3.6, order was not guaranteed:

>>> mydict
{'blah0': 'blah', 'blah1': 'blah', 'blah3': 'blah', 'blah2': 'blah'}

Adding a Filter:

All comprehensions feature a mapping component and a filtering component that you can provide with arbitrary expressions.

So you can add a filter part to the end:

>>> mydict = {k: v for k, v in blahs if not int(k[-1]) % 2}
>>> mydict
{'blah0': 'blah', 'blah2': 'blah'}

Here we are just testing for if the last character is divisible by 2 to filter out data before mapping the keys and values.