Why isn't this code working how I want it to?

[Peter Otten]

reubennottage at gmail.com wrote:

> I've been working on a program and have had to halt it due a slight
> problem. Here's a basic version of the code:
> 
> a = 'filled'
> b = 'filled'
> c = 'empty'
> d = 'empty'
> e = 'filled'
> f = 'empty'
> g = 'filled'
> 
> testdict = {a : 'apple' , b : 'banana' , c : 'cake' , d : 'damson' , e :
> 'eggs' , f : 'fish' , g : 'glue'}

You have duplicate keys here, which becomes obvious when you spell out the 
values

testdict = {"filled": "apple", "filled": "banana", ...}

When you do that, the last value ("banana") wins, all others (e. g. "apple") 
are dropped.

> Now what I want to do, is if a variable is filled, print it out. This
> however isn't working how I planned. The following doesn't work.
> 
> for fillempt in testdict:
>     if fillempt == 'filled':
>         print(testdict[fillempt])
> 
> All this does though, is print glue, where I'd want it to print:
> 
> apple
> banana
> eggs
> glue
> 
> Perhaps a dictionary isn't the best way to do this.. I wonder what else I
> can do...

A dictionary is spot-on, but you have to use the unique "apple", 
"banana",... as keys:

>>> status = {"apple": "filled", "banana": "filled", "cake": "empty"}
>>> for item in status:
...     if status[item] == "filled":
...             print(item)
... 
apple
banana

Could it be that you just confused dict keys with dict values?