Why isn't this code working how I want it to?

[Marco Nawijn]

On Saturday, October 12, 2013 10:56:27 AM UTC+2, reuben... at gmail.com wrote:
> I've been working on a program and have had to halt it due a slight problem. Here's a basic version of the code:
> 
> 
> 
> a = 'filled'
> 
> b = 'filled'
> 
> c = 'empty'
> 
> d = 'empty'
> 
> e = 'filled'
> 
> f = 'empty'
> 
> g = 'filled'
> 
> 
> 
> testdict = {a : 'apple' , b : 'banana' , c : 'cake' , d : 'damson' , e : 'eggs' , f : 'fish' , g : 'glue'}
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Now what I want to do, is if a variable is filled, print it out. This however isn't working how I planned. The following doesn't work.
> 
> 
> 
> for fillempt in testdict:
> 
>     if fillempt == 'filled':
> 
>         print(testdict[fillempt])
> 
> 
> 
> All this does though, is print glue, where I'd want it to print:
> 
> 
> 
> apple
> 
> banana
> 
> eggs
> 
> glue
> 
> 
> 
> Perhaps a dictionary isn't the best way to do this.. I wonder what else I can do...
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for any help.

Hi,

Remember that keys in a dictionary are unique. So if you defined (>>> means it I typed it at the interactive terminal prompt,

>>> d = { 'filled' : 'apple' , 'filled' : 'orange' }

and do a 

>>> print d

it will show:
>>> 
{'filled': 'orange'}

One way to solve this problem is to define two dictionaries. 
One holding the status of the variable, the other one holding
the data. For example:

status = { 'a' : 'filled',  'b' : 'empty', 'c' : 'filled' }
data   = { 'a' : 'orange',  'b' : 'apple', 'c' : 'banana' }

for k in status:
    if status[k]=='filled':
        print data[k]

Regards and let us know if it works for you,

Marco