[Tutor] a better way to express this

[Lloyd Kvam]

dict.setdefault(k,defaultval) 
- 
requires 2.0 or newer

http://starship.python.net/crew/mwh/hacks/setdefault.html
setdefault

This will initialize the key to the default value when the key is not found in the
dictionary, else it returns the value for the key.  I think it is slightly more
general than Danny's solution.  A more descriptive name would be:
	get_butSetIfMissing(key, defaultvalue)

Danny Yoo wrote:

> On Mon, 14 Jan 2002, Sean 'Shaleh' Perry wrote:
> 
> 
>>So today I must have typed the following about 10 times:
>>
>>if dict.has_key(key):
>>    dict[key] = dict[key] + 1 # or maybe foo.data
>>else:
>>    dict[key] = 1 # or maybe foo.data
>>
>>Is there no better way to code that?
>>
> 
> Actually, there is!
> 
> ###
> dict[key] = dict.get(key, 0) + 1
> ###
> 
> The get() method of dictionaries support an optional "default" value than
> you can specify if the element's not in the dictionary.
> 
> 
> Hope this helps!
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Tutor maillist  -  Tutor@python.org
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> 
> 


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Lloyd Kvam
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