[Tutor] Combining dictionaries

[Mike Cheponis]

On Tue, 6 Sep 2005, Danny Yoo wrote:

>> No, that's not what he wants.
>>
>> He wants c = a + b to work when a and b are dictionaries.
>>
>> Why is Python broken in such an obvious way?


> It might not be obvious.  If a and b overlap so that they share keys, then
> we might have the following situation:

I did consider that, but of course, "update" has to deal with that issue already.



>    c1 = a + b
>    c2 = b + a
>
> Are c1 and c2 the same?

Answer: maybe


> One possible problem is that this kind of "merging" operation on
> dictionaries isn't "commutative".  And notationally, addition is supposed
> to be so.  Forcing the notation of arithmetic on dictionaries is
> seductive, but it can invite logical errors.

( See my note, below, on the "*" operator [1]. )


Then use an operator like "++" which would be non-commutative "addition".

>>> a={1:1,2:2}
>>> b={2:22,3:3}
>>> c=dict(a)
>>> c.update(b)         # This would be c = a ++ b
>>> c
{1: 1, 2: 22, 3: 3}

>>> c=dict(b)
>>> c.update(a)         # This would be c = b ++ a
>>> c
{1: 1, 2: 2, 3: 3}


Seems like a straightforward improvement.

--------------------------

[1] Speaking of things that are suprising:


>>> "foo"   "bar "*3
'foobar foobar foobar '

>>> "foo" + "bar "*3
'foobar bar bar '


This also seems like a nasty bug (to me, at least).  Because one would think that the "*"
operator would bind more closely than the '"' or implied concatenation would.

How can I actively help fix these Python bugs?




> Best of wishes to you!

Same to you!


Thanks!  -Mike