Search of Dictionary Keys python

Question

I want to know how I could perform some kind of index on keys from a python dictionary. The dictionary holds approx. 400,000 items, so I am trying to avoid a linear search.

Answer 1

dpath can solve this for you easily.

http://github.com/akesterson/dpath-python

$ easy_install dpath
>>> for (path, value) in dpath.util.search(MY_DICT, "glob/to/start/{}".format(userinput), yielded=True):
>>> ...    # (do something with the path and value)

You can pass an eglob ('path//to//something/[0-9a-z]') for advanced searching.