Handling sorted dictionaries

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 01:01:55 -0700, loial wrote:

> The following code gives the error
> 
> d=sortedmachines[machine]
> TypeError: list indices must be integers
> 
> 
> What works for the unsorted dictionary does not work for the sorted
> dictionary.
> Can anyone help?

The error message you got tells you what the problem is. sortedmachines
is not a "sorted dictionary". There is no such thing -- dictionaries, also
known as "hash tables" in other languages, are unsorted. sortedmachines is
a _list_, just like the error message says, and the index must be an
integer.


> sortedmachines=sorted(machines)

sortedmachines is now the sorted _keys_ copied from machines. Try calling
"print sortedmachines" and looking at what you get.



> for machine in sortedmachines:
>           d=sortedmachines[machine]

Try this instead: 

            d = machines[machine]


-- 
Steven D'Aprano