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How to check if a tuple key is in a dict with O(1) time?

I'm trying to implement a hash table/hash map in Python.
Say I'm using tuples as keys like this:
hashTable = {}
node = [1, 2, 3]
print(hashTable[tuple(node)]) # throws an error
hashTable[tuple(node)] = True
print(hashTable[tuple(node)]) # prints TRUE
I want to check if elements exist in the hashTable before adding it. I have tried initializing the dictionary with all False values.
hashTable = {}
for i in range(1000):
hashTable[i] = False
So this creates a hash table of size 1000 with every slot set to FALSE. But if I try to check if a non-existent element is in the hashTable:
print(hashTable[tuple(node)])
I get the same error as before.
How does one go about doing this? I think this would work iterating through the dict with in but doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of using a hash table in the first place?

Accessing a key is similar to, but not necessarily the same as checking if it exists. To check if a key is in a dictionary, use dict.__contains__ via the in operator. To check if it is missing, use the not in operator:
key = tuple(node)
if key not in hashTable:
hashTable[key] = value
That being said, a totally valid way to check for containment can be by attempting access:
key = tuple(node)
try:
# attempt to use hashTable[key]
except KeyError:
# Do something with missing key
The advantage of doing it this way when both paths are needed is that you only need to access the dictionary once rather than twice.
Try to avoid calling tuple(node) over and over: it's not free. If you can, generate node as a tuple, do so. If not, perform the conversion once and use the converted value.

You can use the in operator to determine membership in a dictionary:
e.g.
if tuple(node) in hashTable:
x = hashTable[tuple(node)]
...

You can try to get the key and in case it is not in de dictionary yet, return a default value as may be None:
x = hashTable.get(node, default=None)

Retrieve values from both nested dictionaries within a list

i'm using an api call in python 3.7 which returns json data.
result = (someapicall)
the data returned appears to be in the form of two nested dictionaries within a list, i.e.
[{name:foo, firmware:boo}{name:foo, firmware:bar}]
i would like to retrieve the value of the key "name" from the first dictionary and also the value of key "firmware" from both dictionaries and store in a new dictionary in the following format.
{foo:(boo,bar)}
so far i've managed to retrieve the value of both the first "name" and the first "firmware" and store in a dictionary using the following.
dict1={}
for i in result:
dict1[(i["networkId"])] = (i['firmware'])
i've tried.
d7[(a["networkId"])] = (a['firmware'],(a['firmware']))
but as expected the above just seems to return the same firmware twice.
can anyone help achive the desired result above

you can use defaultdict to accumulate values in a list, like this:
from collections import defaultdict
result = [{'name':'foo', 'firmware':'boo'},{'name':'foo', 'firmware':'bar'}]
# create a dict with a default of empty list for non existing keys
dict1=defaultdict(list)
# iterate and add firmwares of same name to list
for i in result:
dict1[i['name']].append(i['firmware'])
# reformat to regular dict with tuples
final = {k:tuple(v) for k,v in dict1.items()}
print(final)
Output:
{'foo': ('boo', 'bar')}

Why does the default dictionary in my code keep expanding?

I have a default dictionary and I run it through a couple of loops to look for certain strings in the dictionary. The loops don't really append anything to the dictionary yet as it turns out, during the loop, new items keep getting appended to the dictionary and the final dictionary ends up bigger than the original one before the loop.
I've been trying to pinpoint the error forever but now it's late and I have no idea what's causing this!
from collections import defaultdict
dummydict = defaultdict(list)
dummydict['Alex'].append('Naomi and I love hotcakes')
dummydict['Benjamin'].append('Hayley and I hate hotcakes')
part = ['Alex', 'Benjamin', 'Hayley', 'Naomi']
emp = []
for var in dummydict:
if 'I' in dummydict[var]:
emp.append(var)
for car in part:
for key in range(len(dummydict)):
print('new len', len(dummydict))
print(key, dummydict)
if car in dummydict[key]:
emp.append(car)
print(emp)
print('why are there new values in the dictionary?!', len(dummydict), dummydict)
I expect the dictionary to remain unchanged.

if car in dummydict[key]:
key being an integer, and your dict being initially filled with only string as keys, this will create a new value in dummydict for each key.

Accessing missing keys as in dummydict[key] will add those keys to the defaultdict. Note that key is an int, not the value at that position, as for key in range(len(dummydict)) iterates indexes, not the dict or its keys.

See the docs:
When each key is encountered for the first time, it is not already in the mapping; so an entry is automatically created using the default_factory function which returns an empty list.
For example, this code will show a dummydict with a value in it, because simply accessing dummydict[key] will add the key to the dict if that key is not already there.
from collections import defaultdict
dummydict = defaultdict(list)
dummydict[1]
print (dummydict)
outputs:
defaultdict(<class 'list'>, {1: []})
Your issue is that in your loop, you do things like dummydict[key] and dummydict[var], which adds those keys.

Adding items to sets in a dictionary

I have a list of dictionaries that maps different IDs to a central ID. I have a document with these different IDs associated with terms. I have created a function that now has a key the central ID from the different IDs in the document. The goFile is the document where in the first column there's an ID and in the second one there's a GOterm. The mappingList is a list containing dictionaries in which the ID in the goFile is mapped to a main ID.
My expected output is a dictionary with a main ID as a key and a set with the go terms associated with it as value.
def parseGO(mappingList, goFile):
# open the file
file = open(goFile)
# this will be the dictionary that this function returns
# entries will have as a key an Ensembl ID
# and the value will be a set of GO terms
GOdict = {}
GOset = set()
for line in file:
splitline = line.split(' ')
GO_term = splitline[1]
value_ID = splitline[0]
for dict in mappingList:
if value_ID in dict:
ENSB_term = dict[value_ID]
#my best try
for dict in mappingList:
for key in GOdict.keys():
if value_ID in dict and key == dict[value_ID]:
GOdict[ENSB_term].add(GO_term)
GOdict[ENSB_term] = GOset
return GOdict
My problem is that now I have to add to the central ID in my GOdict the terms that are associated in the document to the different IDs. To avoid duplicates i use a set (GOset). How do I do it? All my try end having all the terms mapped to all the main IDs.
Some sample:
mappingList = [{'1234': 'mainID1', '456': 'mainID2'}, {'789': 'mainID2'}]
goFile:
1234 GOTERM1
1234 GOTERM2
456 GOTERM1
456 GOTERM3
789 GOTERM1
expected output:
GOdict = {'mainID1': set([GOTERM1, GOTERM2]), 'mainID2': set([GOTERM1, GOTERM3])}

First off, you shouldn't use the variable name 'dict', as it shadows the built-in dict class, and will cause you problems at some point.
The following should work for you:
from collections import defaultdict
def parse_go(mapping_list, go_file):
go_dict = defaultdict(set)
with open(go_file) as f: # Better garbage handling using 'with'
for line in f:
(value_id, go_term) = line.split() # Feel free to change the split behaviour
# work better for you.
for map_dict in mapping_list:
if value_id in map_dict:
go_dict[map_dict[value_id]].add(go_term)
return go_dict
The code is fairly straightforward, but here's a breakdown anyway.
We use a default dictionary instead of a normal dictionary so we can eliminate all that if in or setdefault() boilerplate.
For each line in the file, we check if the first item (value_id) is a key in any of the mapping dictionaries, and if so, adds the lines second item (go_term) to that value_id's set in the dictionary.
EDIT: Request for doing this without defaultdict(). Assume that go_dict is just a normal dictionary (go_dict = {}), your for loop would look like:
for map_dict in mapping_list:
if value_id in map_dict:
esnb_entry = go_dict.setdefault(map_dict[value_id], set())
esnb_entry.add(go_term)

Add multiple values to dictionary

Here is my code:
for response in responses["result"]:
ids = {}
key = response['_id'].encode('ascii')
print key
for value in response['docs']:
ids[key].append(value)
Traceback:
File "people.py", line 47, in <module>
ids[key].append(value)
KeyError: 'deanna'
I am trying to add multiple values to a key. Throws an error like above

Check out setdefault:
ids.setdefault(key, []).append(value)
It looks to see if key is in ids, and if not, sets that to be an empty list. Then it returns that list for you to inline call append on.
Docs:
http://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#dict.setdefault

If I'm reading this correctly your intention is to map the _id of a response to its docs. In that case you can bring down everything you have above to a dict comprehension:
ids = {response['_id'].encode('ascii'): response['docs']
for response in responses['result']}
This also assumes you meant to have id = {} outside of the outermost loop, but I can't see any other reasonable interpretation.
If the above is not correct,
You can use collections.defaultdict
import collections # at top level
#then in your loop:
ids = collections.defaultdict(list) #instead of ids = {}
A dictionary whose default value will be created by calling the init argument, in this case calling list() will produce an empty list which can then be appended to.
To traverse the dictionary you can iterate over it's items()
for key, val in ids.items():
print(key, val)

The reason you're getting a KeyError is this: In the first iteration of your for loop, you look up the key in an empty dictionary. There is no such key, hence the KeyError.
The code you gave will work, if you first insert an empty list into the dictionary under to appropriate key. Then append the values to the list. Like so:
for response in responses["result"]:
ids = {}
key = response['_id'].encode('ascii')
print key
if key not in ids: ## <-- if we haven't seen key yet
ids[key] = [] ## <-- insert an empty list into the dictionary
for value in response['docs']:
ids[key].append(value)
The previous answers are correct. Both defaultdict and dictionary.setdefault are automatic ways of inserting the empty list.