missing? dictionary methods

[Chris Rebert (cybercobra)]

Antoon Pardon wrote:
> Well at least I find them missing.
>
> For the moment I frequently come across the following cases.
>
> 1) Two files, each with key-value pairs for the same dictionary.
> However it is an error if the second file contains a key that
> was not in the first file.
>
> In treating the second file I miss a 'set' method.
> dct.set(key, value) would be equivallent to dct[key] = value,
> except that it would raise a KeyError if the key wasn't
> already in the dictionary.
>
>
> 2) One file with key-value pairs. However it is an error
> if a key is duplicated in the file.
>
> In treating such files I miss a 'make' method.
> dct.make(key, value) would be equivallent to dct[key] = value.
> except that it would raise a KeyError if the key was
> already in the dictionary.
>
>
> What do other people think about this?
>
> --
> Antoon Pardon

If (1) gets accepted, I propose the name .change(key, val)  It's
simple, logical, and makes sense.