Problem scenario
You want to use a dictionary in Python, but you do not know how. What should you do?
Solution
1. For a very simple dictionary, you could use "{}" with no quotes. This makes var1 a dictionary in Python:
var1 = {}
Normally with no colons, two matching curly braces would signify a set. (You can find out more about this Python syntax here.)
2. To really learn about dictionaries, create a file called test.py with the following content:
# The two lines below show how to create two dictionaries
dict1 = { 1:'Mark Zuckerberg', 2:'Sheryl Sandberg'}
dict2 = { 2:'Sheryl Sandberg', 1:'Mark Zuckerberg'}
# This if clause demonstrates testing the equivalence of the two dictionaries
if dict1 == dict2:
print 'The contents of the dictionaries are identical!'
else:
print 'The contents of the dictionaries are dissimilar.'
# This line demonstrates adding a key-value pair to a dictionary
dict1['Peter Thiel'] = 3
# This proves that dictionaries are mutable.
print dict1
3. Run the program test.py (using python test.py) to see how Python dictionaries work.