Multidimensional Dictionaries: Possible?

[Sean Blakey]

On Tue, 25 Jan 2000, Jerry Gardner wrote:

> 
> Are multidimensional dictionaries possible in Python? I'm sure they're
> possible, but I can't figure out the syntax.
> 
> Here's how I do it in Perl:
> 
> 
> %dict = ();  # create empty dictionary
> 
> 
> $dict{$key1}{$key2} = $string;       # make an entry
> $newstring = ${dict{$key1}{$key2}};  # access an entry
> 
> 
> 
You might want to try something like this:
>>my_dict = {}	# Create the dictionary
>>>try:						# Make an entry
...	my_dict[key1][key2] = my_string	
...except KeyError:
...	my_dict[key1] = {}			# Create the dictionary in key1
...	my_dict[key1][key2] = my_string
...
>>>string_reference = my_dict[key1][key2]	# Access the string

Alternately, if this usage of try/except makes you uncomfortable:
>>>my_dict = {}			# Create the dictionary
>>>if not my_dict.has_key(key1):
...	my_dict[key1] = {}	
...my_dict[key1][key2] = my_string
>>>string_reference = my_dict[key1][key2]

-- 
Sean Blakey
(206)297-7123
quine = ['print "quine =",quine,"; exec(quine[0])"']; exec(quine[0])