[Tutor] Dynamic naming of lists

[Peter Otten]

Ian D wrote:

> Thanks I will look into these. The data going in is a list like
> this:['broadcast', '"d8on"', 'broadcast', '"d11on"']
> 
> With the output beng something like this.
> 
> lst_0 = ['broadcast', '"d8on"']
> 
> lst_0 = ['broadcast', '"d11on"']

Is that a typo, did you mean

lst_1 = ['broadcast', '"d11on"']

? If so us a list. Complete example:

>>> flat_pairs = ['broadcast', '"d8on"', 'broadcast', '"d11on"']
>>> it = iter(flat_pairs)
>>> pairs = list(zip(it, it))
>>> pairs
[('broadcast', '"d8on"'), ('broadcast', '"d11on"')]

You can then access individual pairs by providing an index into the pairs 
list:

>>> pairs[0]
('broadcast', '"d8on"')
>>> pairs[1]
('broadcast', '"d11on"')

> I have managed to use a dictionary as advised in a post on StackOverflow;
> not quite completed it as I am overwriting my lists each time. From your
> experience is it better to pursue the dictionary route or the zip tuple
> option. I am in python2.7

A dictionary is typically used when the keys are not as regular as a 
sequence of integers, e. g. to map a user name to an email address or a word 
to a list of the positions where it occurs in a text.