Home > Dive Into Python > Getting To Know Python > Dictionaries 101 | << >> |
diveintopython.org | |
Python for experienced programmers | |
A short digression is in order, because you need to know about dictionaries, tuples, and lists (oh my!). If you're a Perl hacker, you can probably skim the bits about dictionaries and lists, but you should still pay attention to tuples.
One of Python's built-in datatypes is the dictionary, which defines one-to-one relationships between keys and values. This is like an associative array in Perl, a Map in Java, or the Scripting.Dictionary object in VBScript.
Example 1.9. Defining a dictionary
>>> d = {"server":"mpilgrim", "database":"master"}>>> d {'server': 'mpilgrim', 'database': 'master'} >>> d["server"]
'mpilgrim' >>> d["database"]
'master' >>> d["mpilgrim"]
Traceback (innermost last): File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ? KeyError: mpilgrim
Example 1.10. Modifying a dictionary
>>> d {'server': 'mpilgrim', 'database': 'master'} >>> d["database"] = "pubs">>> d {'server': 'mpilgrim', 'database': 'pubs'} >>> d["uid"] = "sa"
>>> d {'server': 'mpilgrim', 'uid': 'sa', 'database': 'pubs'}
Note that the new element (key uid, value sa) appears to be in the middle. In fact, it was just a coincidence that the elements appeared to be in order in the first example; it is just as much a coincidence that they appear to be out of order now.
![]() | |
Dictionaries have no concept of order among elements. It is incorrect to say that the elements are “out of order”; they are simply unordered. This is an important distinction which will annoy you when you want to access the elements of a dictionary in a specific, repeatable order (like alphabetical order by key). There are ways of doing this, they're just not built into the dictionary. |
Example 1.11. Mixing datatypes in a dictionary
>>> d {'server': 'mpilgrim', 'uid': 'sa', 'database': 'pubs'} >>> d["retrycount"] = 3>>> d {'server': 'mpilgrim', 'uid': 'sa', 'database': 'master', 'retrycount': 3} >>> d[42] = "douglas"
>>> d {'server': 'mpilgrim', 'uid': 'sa', 'database': 'master', 42: 'douglas', 'retrycount': 3}
Example 1.12. Deleting items from a dictionary
>>> d {'server': 'mpilgrim', 'uid': 'sa', 'database': 'master', 42: 'douglas', 'retrycount': 3} >>> del d[42]>>> d {'server': 'mpilgrim', 'uid': 'sa', 'database': 'master', 'retrycount': 3} >>> d.clear()
>>> d {}
![]() | del lets you delete individual items from a dictionary by key. |
![]() | clear deletes all items from a dictionary. Note that the set of empty curly braces signifies a dictionary with no items. |
« Testing modules | Lists 101 » |