Storing and updating lists in Python dictionaries: why does this happen?

Question

I have a list of data that looks like the following:

// timestep,x_position,y_position
0,4,7
0,2,7
0,9,5
0,6,7
1,2,5
1,4,7
1,9,0
1,6,8

... and

Answer 1

Let's look at

d[t].append(c)

What is the value of d[t]? Try it.

d = {}
t = 0
d[t]

What do you get? Oh. There's nothing in d that has a key of t.

Now try this.

d[t] = []
d[t]

Ahh. Now there's something in d with a key of t.

There are several things you can do.

1. Use example 2.
2. Use setdefault. d.setdefault(t,[]).append(c).
3. Use collections.defaultdict. You'd use a defaultdict(list) instead of a simple dictionary, {}.

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Edit 1. Optimization

Given input lines from a file in the above form: ts, x, y, the grouping process is needless. There's no reason to go from a simple list of ( ts, x, y ) to a more complex list of ( ts, (x,y), (x,y), (x,y), ... ). The original list can be processed exactly as it arrived.

d= collections.defaultdict(list)
for ts, x, y in someFileOrListOrQueryOrWhatever:
    d[ts].append( (x,y) )

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Edit 2. Answer Question

"when initialising a dictionary, you need to tell the dictionary what the key-value data structure will look like?"

I'm not sure what the question means. Since, all dictionaries are key-value structures, the question's not very clear. So, I'll review the three alternatives, which may answer the question.

Example 2.

Initialization

d= {}

Use

if t not in d:
    d[t] = list()
d[t].append( c )

Each dictionary value must be initialized to some useful structure. In this case, we check to see if the key is present; when the key is missing, we create the key and assign an empty list.

Setdefault

Initialization

d= {}

Use

d.setdefault(t,list()).append( c )

In this case, we exploit the setdefault method to either fetch a value associated with a key or create a new value associated with a missing key.

default dict

Initialization

import collections
d = collections.defaultdict(list)

Use

d[t].append( c )

The defaultdict uses an initializer function for missing keys. In this case, we provide the list function so that a new, empty list is created for a missing key.