Python Tip: Tricks for Dict(ionarie)s

Okay, so things everyone should know about dictionaries, they are in the python manual but I still didn't know them until today. First off creating a dictionary in the code (ie hardcoded)

d = dict(one=2, two=3)

This is a simpler way of doing things, and it sure beats having to rember all your quotes when doing:

d = {'one': 2, 'two': 3}

Granted the second way looks cooler! But we have to make compromises. Another cool thing, is taking a list of keys and list of values and turning them into a dictionary:

keys = ('one', 'two')
values = (2, 3)
d = dict(zip(keys, values))

Which is a compact way of doing this (which is what I did before I read the previous way):

keys = ('one', 'two')
values = (2, 3)
d = dict(map(lambda k,v: (k,v), keys, values))

The map and lambda works, but its not nearlly as clean, though understanding what zip does is a kinda hard just reading the manual, it really needs some examples to straighten things out. These were intially prompted when I wanted a blankslate PHP like object:

class objectify(dict):
    def __init__(self, values, keys):
        self.__dict__ = self
        map(self.__setitem__, keys, values)

Which lets us do nifty things like:

keys = ('one', 'two')
values = (2, 3)
o = objectify(values, keys)
o.three = o.one + o.two

And thats that for fun little dictionary tips.