[portland] Dictionary To Switch Contexts

[Rich Shepard]

   Rather than using multiple if ... elif ... statements, I'm trying to
implement a dictionary to call the proper function based on the value passed
to it. I don't know how to express the value when a key is selected.

   Here's the dictionary:

curvePlot = {
       'Decay S-Curve'     : zCurve,
       'Bell Curve'        : bellCurve,
       'Growth S-Curve'    : sCurve,
       'Beta'              : betaCurve,
       'Data'              : dataCurve,
       'Linear Increasing' : linIncrCurve,
       'Linear Decreasing' : linDecrCurve,
       'Left Shoulder'     : leftShouldCurve,
       'Trapezoid'         : trapCurve,
       'Right Shoulder'    : rightShouldCurve,
       'Triangle'          : triangCurve,
       'Singleton'         : singleCurve,
       'Rectangle'         : rectCurve,
       'Outcome'           : resultsCurve
       }

  These curve are actually in a separate module, 'functions,' but python
doesn't like me to put the function name in the dictionary, so I have helper
functions in the dictionary's module.

   Here's how I'm trying to use the dictionary:

if compList[0][1] == curVar:
             # call plotting function
             pylab.hold(True)
             curvePlot.get(compList[0][4], ???)

   I don't know what to write where the question marks are. The item at
compList[0][4] is a string that matches one of the dictionary keys.

Rich

-- 
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |  Integrity            Credibility
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.        |            Innovation
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