syntax philosophy

[Terry Reedy]

"Tuang" <tuanglen at hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:df045d93.0311172120.7e753552 at posting.google.com...
> $dict{$color}++
> to count up what you find.

Your wish is Python's command:

class cdict(dict):
  def __getitem__(self, key):
    try:
      return dict.__getitem__(self, key)
    except KeyError:
      return 0

h=cdict()
for item in [1,1,2,3,2,3,1,4]:
  h[item]+=1

>>> h
{1: 3, 2: 2, 3: 2, 4: 1}

> $dict{$salesperson} += $amount

Trivial modification:

t=cdict()
for key,amt in ((1,2), (1,3), (2,5), (3,1), (3,2), (3,3)):
  t[key] += amt

>>> t
{1: 5, 2: 5, 3: 6}

Terry J. Reedy