how to safely extract dict values

[David Zaret]

i have a dict with a particular key - the values for this key will be
None, one valid scalar, or a list:

{mykey, None}
{mykey, "foo"}
{mykey, ["bar", "baz"]}

let's ignore the None case - in the case of the one or many values, i
want to suck the values into a list. here's one way to do this:

if mydict.has_key(mykey):
vals=[]
_v = mydict[mykey]
if isinstance(_v, types.ListType):
vals.extend(_v)
else:
vals.append(_v)
# now we can safely iterate through acts
for val in vals:
.....


my way is ugly. what's a better way?

thanks,

---- dz

 

[Paul Rubin]

my way is ugly. what's a better way?

Untested:

for key in mydict:
if isinstance(mydict[key], list):
vals.extend(mydict[key])
else:
vals.append(mydict[key])

 

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

my way is ugly. what's a better way?

Untested:

for key in mydict:
if isinstance(mydict[key], list):
vals.extend(mydict[key])
else:
vals.append(mydict[key])

Too much useless lookup IMHO...

vals = []
for k, v in mydict.items():
if isinstance(v, list):
vals.extend(v)
else:
vals.append(v)

!-)

But this is not that different from what the OP found so ugly...

 

[Amit Khemka]

i have a dict with a particular key - the values for this key will be
None, one valid scalar, or a list:

{mykey, None}
{mykey, "foo"}
{mykey, ["bar", "baz"]}

let's ignore the None case - in the case of the one or many values, i
want to suck the values into a list. here's one way to do this:

if mydict.has_key(mykey):
vals=[]
_v = mydict[mykey]
if isinstance(_v, types.ListType):
vals.extend(_v)
else:
vals.append(_v)
# now we can safely iterate through acts
for val in vals:
.....

how about:

vals = []
for val in mydict.values():
try: vals.extend(val)
except: vals.append(val)

cheers,
amit.



--

 

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

i have a dict with a particular key - the values for this key will be
None, one valid scalar, or a list:

{mykey, None}
{mykey, "foo"}
{mykey, ["bar", "baz"]}

let's ignore the None case - in the case of the one or many values, i
want to suck the values into a list. here's one way to do this:

if mydict.has_key(mykey):
vals=[]
_v = mydict[mykey]
if isinstance(_v, types.ListType):
vals.extend(_v)
else:
vals.append(_v)
# now we can safely iterate through acts
for val in vals:
.....


my way is ugly. what's a better way?

If you have control over the dict's creation and 'filling', you may want
to handle the case there - eventually using a custom dict-like object
that stores everything (but None) in lists. The implementation code for
this object will not be less ugly than the one above, but at least
ugliness will be hidden away !-)

Else, you can shorten the code a bit (NB : ignoring the 'None' case...):

v = d[k]
v = ([v], v)[isinstance(v, list)]

And this can be hidden away in a function:

def get_as_list(d, k):
v = d[k]
return ([v], v)[isinstance(v, list)]

vals = get_as_list(mydict, mykey)


I don't like using isinstance() tests too much, but it depends on the
context...

HTH

 

[Paul Rubin]

Too much useless lookup IMHO...

Actually, you, me, and Amit all mis-read David's original exapmle.
What he really wanted was (let's see if I get it right this time):

if mykey in mydict:
v = mydict[mykey]
if not isinstance(v, list):
v = [v]
for val in v: ...

 

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

i have a dict with a particular key - the values for this key will be
None, one valid scalar, or a list:

{mykey, None}
{mykey, "foo"}
{mykey, ["bar", "baz"]}

let's ignore the None case - in the case of the one or many values, i
want to suck the values into a list. here's one way to do this:

if mydict.has_key(mykey):
vals=[]
_v = mydict[mykey]
if isinstance(_v, types.ListType):
vals.extend(_v)
else:
vals.append(_v)
# now we can safely iterate through acts
for val in vals:
.....

how about:

vals = []
for val in mydict.values():
try: vals.extend(val)
except: vals.append(val)

l = []
l.extend((1, 2))
l [1, 2]
l.extend('ab')
l [1, 2, 'a', 'b']

 

[David Zaret]

thanks for the many responses.

i have zero control over the dict. in practice, i'm using turbogears
which is "automatically" populating the result dict with zero-to-many
choices from a generated list of HTML checkboxes. the user can select
none, one, or many, and submit. cherrypy packs the **kwargs arg full of
the selection, as i described in my op.

using a try/exception case to switch between append and extend will not
work. the scalar, coming back as a string, can certainly be iterated
and i'll end up with a bunch of characters in my list.

i like what's posted below - that's more compact - and at least closer
to what i was looking for.

thanks again, great newsgroup.

---- dz

i have a dict with a particular key - the values for this key will be
None, one valid scalar, or a list:

{mykey, None}
{mykey, "foo"}
{mykey, ["bar", "baz"]}

let's ignore the None case - in the case of the one or many values, i
want to suck the values into a list. here's one way to do this:

if mydict.has_key(mykey):
vals=[]
_v = mydict[mykey]
if isinstance(_v, types.ListType):
vals.extend(_v)
else:
vals.append(_v)
# now we can safely iterate through acts
for val in vals:
.....


my way is ugly. what's a better way?

If you have control over the dict's creation and 'filling', you may want
to handle the case there - eventually using a custom dict-like object
that stores everything (but None) in lists. The implementation code for
this object will not be less ugly than the one above, but at least
ugliness will be hidden away !-)

Else, you can shorten the code a bit (NB : ignoring the 'None' case...):

v = d[k]
v = ([v], v)[isinstance(v, list)]

And this can be hidden away in a function:

def get_as_list(d, k):
v = d[k]
return ([v], v)[isinstance(v, list)]

vals = get_as_list(mydict, mykey)


I don't like using isinstance() tests too much, but it depends on the
context...

HTH

 

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

Actually, you, me, and Amit all mis-read David's original exapmle.

Actually, I plea not guilty - cf my answer to the OP !-)

 

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

thanks for the many responses.

i have zero control over the dict. in practice, i'm using turbogears
which is "automatically" populating the result dict with zero-to-many
choices from a generated list of HTML checkboxes. the user can select
none, one, or many, and submit. cherrypy packs the **kwargs arg full of
the selection, as i described in my op.

Are you sure you get mydict[mykey]==None if the user doesn't check any
of the checkboxes ? According to html specs, the form's dataset
shouldn't have the key at all in this case.

using a try/exception case to switch between append and extend will not
work.
Nope.

the scalar, coming back as a string, can certainly be iterated
and i'll end up with a bunch of characters in my list.
Yes.

i like what's posted below

Thanks - and BTW, please, don't top-post...

 

[Amit Khemka]

oops ! my mistake :-D

how about:

vals = []
for val in mydict.values():
try: vals.extend(val)
except: vals.append(val)

l = []
l.extend((1, 2))
l [1, 2]
l.extend('ab')
l

[1, 2, 'a', 'b']

Oops, my mistake ... jumped in too quickly !

cheers,
--