In Python, How can I get the next and previous key:value of a particular key in a dictionary?

Question

Okay, so this is a little hard to explain, but here goes:

I have a dictionary, which I\'m adding content to. The content is a hashed username (key) with an IP address (v

Answer 1

You could also use the list.index() method.

This function is more generic (you can check positions +n and -n), it will catch attempts at searching a key that's not in the dict, and it will also return None if there's nothing before of after the key:

def keyshift(dictionary, key, diff):
    if key in dictionary:
        token = object()
        keys = [token]*(diff*-1) + sorted(dictionary) + [token]*diff
        newkey = keys[keys.index(key)+diff]
        if newkey is token:
            print None
        else:
            print {newkey: dictionary[newkey]}
    else:
        print 'Key not found'


keyshift(d, 'bbbb', -1)
keyshift(d, 'eeee', +1)