Why does one work, but not the other?

[Peter Otten]

j_mckitrick wrote:

> But I'm still on my mission to replace 'for' with list comprehensions
> where possible, according to the article on optimization on the python
> site.

I don't know the article, but I assume it doesn't tell list comprehensions
are always faster/better. 
 
> That being said, is there a way to write this as a comprehension?  I
> can't figure out how to do so and get k into the key correctly.  I'm
> just trying to save a dictionary via anydbm.
> 
>             for k, v in self.options.items():
>                 db[k] = str(v)

Yes,

>>> dk = {1:2, 3:4}
>>> options = {1:4, 2:6, 3:8}
>>> dk.update(dict([(k, str(v)) for (k, v) in options.iteritems()]))
>>> dk
{1: '4', 2: '6', 3: '8'}
>>>

but why would you trade a muddy comprehension for a clean loop? The for loop
is clearer (and faster, I suppose) here. Remember that list comprehensions
are a means rather than an end.

With 2.4 that may be a different story, as the above will reduce (I think)
to

dk.update((k, str(v)) for (k, v) in options.iteritems())

However, some overhead (generating throwaway tuples) is likely to remain.

Peter