[Tutor] dict() versus {}

[wormwood_3]

Hmm, looked through the latest docs, in the sections on dictionary types, don't see examples that point to this case well. Can you link to what you had in mind?

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________________________________
From: bob gailer <bgailer at gmail.com>
To: wormwood_3 <wormwood_3 at yahoo.com>
Cc: Python Tutorlist <tutor at python.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 11:02:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Tutor] dict() versus {}

wormwood_3 wrote: 
When
creating a list of dictionaries through a loop, I ran into a strange
issue. I'll let the code talk:

>>> l = 'i am a special new list'.split()
>>> t = []
>>> for thing in l:
...     t.append({thing: 1})
... 
>>> t
[{'i': 1}, {'am': 1}, {'a': 1}, {'special': 1}, {'new': 1}, {'list': 1}]

This is what I expected. {} says to make a dictionary. Thing, not being
quoted, is clearing a variable, which needs to be evaluated and used as
the key.

>>> t = []
>>> for thing in l:
...     t.append(dict(thing=1))
... 
>>> t
[{'thing': 1}, {'thing': 1}, {'thing': 1}, {'thing': 1}, {'thing': 1},
{'thing': 1}]

This was what threw me. Why would the dict() function not evaluate
thing? How can it take it as a literal string without quotes?
I suggest you look dict up in the Python documentation. There it shows
the result you got as an example. When in doubt read the manual.


-- 
Bob Gailer
Chapel Hill NC
919-636-4239
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