Dictionaries (Python Basics 5)
Introduction
- dictionaries are super powerful
- they can seem a little weird
- they more or less make up their own namespace
- object-oriented programming in Python is closely related to dictionaries
- each object has its own built-in dictionary
What is a dictionary?
- a set of key/value pairs
- you use the keys to look up the values like looking-up a word in the
dictionary to find its definition (key=word, value=definition)
- the value is what you find when you look-up the key in the dictionary
- example:
mydict = {'a':'hello', 'b':'ryan'}
Keys
- keys can be almost anything
- strings and integers make good choices, but you can also use
instances of objects
Values
- values can be pretty much anything
