[Tutor] iterating over sorted dictionary keys (this right?)

[kevin parks]

hi.

I'd like to check and see if i am on the right path and that i am 
understanding things. I have a hard time getting my head around 
dictionaries as Python is the first language that i have used that has 
them and as i result i almost always use lists... Still it is clear to 
me that dictionaries are helpful and sometimes have advantages so i am 
forcing myself to learn and use them.

I need to iterate over a dictionary, but since my key is a time value, 
order matters. So i am trying to iterate over a sorted copy of my keys. 
I am guessing that i can no longer use the items method:

for key, value in page02.items():

as i have now sorted my keys (is that right, or am i misunderstanding 
how items() works?)

In any case i am getting (i think) the right thing by changing :

     print len(page02)
     line_num = 1
     for key, value in page02.items():
         print line_num,"\tKey = %s" %str(key), "\tValue = %s" 
%str(value)
         line_num = line_num + 1


# to

     mykeys = page02.keys()  # first make a copy of the keys
     print '-+' * 26
     print mykeys            # print it and take a look
     print '-+' * 26
     mykeys.sort()           # now sort that copy in place
     print mykeys
     line_num = 1            # let's count our lines
     print '-+' * 26
     # iterate over the sorted keys
     for key in mykeys:
         print line_num,"\tKey = %s" %str(key), "\tValue = %s" 
%str(page02[key])
         line_num = line_num + 1


here is the whole ball of wax:

#!/usr/bin/env python

def test():
     page02 = {
         (1,0) : [8, 3, 5, 4],
         (7,0) : [4, 3, 2, 2],
         (14,0) : [8, 3, 5, 4],
         (18,0) : [10, 2, 8, 7],
         (20,0) : [10, 0, 5, 7],
         (22,0) : [10, 2, 8, 7],
         (24,0) : [7, 9, 3, 8],
         #  (25,0) : [5],
         #  (27,0) : [0],
         (28,0) : [10, 0, 5, 7],
         (29,0) : [10, 11],
         (30,0) : [8, 3, 5, 4],
         (32,0) : [5, 0, 10, 7],
         (34,0) : [8, 3, 7, 9],
         (36,0) : [5, 4, 3, 1],
         (36,1) : [5, 4, 3, 1, 7],
         (37,0) : [0, 8, 2, 4, 9, 10, 1],
         (37,1) : [0, 8, 2, 4, 9, 10, 1, 6],
         (39,0) : [8, 10, 1, 9],
         (39,1) : [8, 10, 1, 9, 7],
         (41,0) : [2, 0, 3, 1],
         (41,1) : [2, 0, 3, 1, 6] }
     print len(page02)
     line_num = 1
     for key, value in page02.items():
         print line_num,"\tKey = %s" %str(key), "\tValue = %s" 
%str(value)
         line_num = line_num + 1
# -- ----
     mykeys = page02.keys()  # first make a copy of the keys
     print '-+' * 26
     print mykeys            # print it and take a look
     print '-+' * 26
     mykeys.sort()           # now sort that copy in place
     print mykeys
     line_num = 1            # let's count our lines
     print '-+' * 26
     # iterate over the sorted keys
     for key in mykeys:
         print line_num,"\tKey = %s" %str(key), "\tValue = %s" 
%str(page02[key])
         line_num = line_num + 1

# -- -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-


if __name__ == "__main__":
     test()