[Tutor] sorting lists in dictionary values

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Whoa, this made my brain hurt. And I thought I was being clever using  
a set...

I can't say I really understand this yet, but I'm trying. If anyone's  
following along at home I found this link kind of helpful:
http://python.net/crew/mwh/hacks/setdefault.html


Thanks a lot for your help,

Eric

> Try this :
>
> nameFile = open(r'/path/to/file.txt', 'rU')
> phonebook = {}
>
> for line in nameFile :
>     phonebook.setdefault(line[0].upper(), []).append(line.strip('\n'))
>
> for item, names in phonebook.iteritems() :
>     names.sort()
>
> print phonebook
>
> HTH
>