[Tutor] a generic table data structure for table / 2d array / lookup table?

[Marcus Goldfish]

Before I try to reinvent the wheel, can anyone point me to a data
structure suitable for storing non-numeric, 2-d arrays.  For instance,
something that can store the following:

        A      B      C      D
 1   'cat'     3    object  9
 J    4      [1]     5        6

where the column and row labels in this example are ['A','B','C','D']
and [1,'J'], respectively.  I need to access (set and get values) by
cell, row, and column.

I have a solution using 2-tuple keys and a dict, e.g., d[('A',1)], but
it seems kludgy and doesn't handle the row/column access.

Any pointers or code snippets would be appreciated!

Marcus