[Tutor] getting and using information dict objects

[Mitya Sirenef]

On 02/23/2013 04:56 PM, Matthew Johnson wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to make a move from excel to python. My main need is
> economic data -- to do economic analysis.
>
> I have found the FRED package, and appear to have connected to the St
> Louis Fed's FRED and downloaded some data, but i'm not sure what to do
> with the objects that are returned.
>
> _____
>
>> import fred
>> fred.key(fredKey)
> (i guessed that i should not provide my own FRED API key)
>
>> gnp = fred.series('GNPCA')
> i can see that the object returned is a dict
>
>> type(gnp)
> <type 'dict'>
>
> but i cannot see how to access the observations, or use them in any way.
>
> After a bit of fiddling about, i managed to find another method, which
> i think also returns a dictionary of values and meta-data:
>
> gnpObvs = fred.observations('GNPCA')
>
> however I cannot figure out how to get the observation values out and
> use them.
>
> I may be thinking in the wrong framework -- i guess i'm expecting
> something that is an intuitive as an excel table.
>
> The end game for me is making plots of variables, combining them, and
> doing regressions -- i cannot see how i might take what i'm getting
> from these FRED / Python dicts to actual data analysis.
>
> Could someone please help me take these first steps?
>
> thanks + best regards
>
> matt
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Basic use of dictionaries is:

d = dict(x=1, y=2)
for key, val in d.items():
  print(key, val)

print d['x']
print d['y']

  -m

-- 
Lark's Tongue Guide to Python: http://lightbird.net/larks/