a clean way to define dictionary

[Alexander Schmolck]

Skip Montanaro <skip at pobox.com> writes:

>     Alexander> Maybe I'm a bit blinkered, but right now I can't see how
> 
>     Alexander>     dict(foo=1, bar='sean')
> 
>     Alexander> is so much better/more convinient than
> 
>     Alexander>     {'foo':1, bar:'sean'}
> 
>     Alexander> that it justifies forcing people to learn a new redundant and
>     Alexander> less general dictionary creation syntax that at least hinders
>     Alexander> customizing dictionary instantiation like in
> 
> I don't think it would normally be used that way.  Instead, consider you
> have a preexisting dictionary and want a copy:
> 
>     >>> d1 = {'foo':1, 'bar':'sean'}
>     >>> d2 = dict(**d1)
>     >>> d2 == d1
>     True
> 
> That's a one-liner where the equivalent
> 
>     d2 = {}
>     d2.update(d1)
> 
> is a two-liner and likely slower.

Uhm,

     d2 = d1.copy() ?

'as