Is there a difference between using a dict literal and a dict constructor?

Question

Using PyCharm, I noticed it offers to convert a dict literal:

d = {
    \'one\': \'1\',
    \'two\': \'2\',
}

Answer 1

I think you have pointed out the most obvious difference. Apart from that,

the first doesn't need to lookup dict which should make it a tiny bit faster

the second looks up dict in locals() and then globals() and the finds the builtin, so you can switch the behaviour by defining a local called dict for example although I can't think of anywhere this would be a good idea apart from maybe when debugging

Answer 2

the dict() literal is nice when you are copy pasting values from something else (none python) For example a list of environment variables. if you had a bash file, say

FOO='bar'
CABBAGE='good'

you can easily paste then into a dict() literal and add comments. It also makes it easier to do the opposite, copy into something else. Whereas the {'FOO': 'bar'} syntax is pretty unique to python and json. So if you use json a lot, you might want to use {} literals with double quotes.

Answer 3

There is no dict literal to create dict-inherited classes, custom dict classes with additional methods. In such case custom dict class constructor should be used, for example:

class NestedDict(dict):

    # ... skipped

state_type_map = NestedDict(**{
    'owns': 'Another',
    'uses': 'Another',
})

Answer 4

Literal is much faster, since it uses optimized BUILD_MAP and STORE_MAP opcodes rather than generic CALL_FUNCTION:

> python2.7 -m timeit "d = dict(a=1, b=2, c=3, d=4, e=5)"
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.958 usec per loop

> python2.7 -m timeit "d = {'a':1, 'b':2, 'c':3, 'd':4, 'e':5}"
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.479 usec per loop

> python3.2 -m timeit "d = dict(a=1, b=2, c=3, d=4, e=5)"
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.975 usec per loop

> python3.2 -m timeit "d = {'a':1, 'b':2, 'c':3, 'd':4, 'e':5}"
1000000 loops, best of 3: 0.409 usec per loop

Answer 5

Also consider the fact that tokens that match for operators can't be used in the constructor syntax, i.e. dasherized keys.

>>> dict(foo-bar=1)
File "<stdin>", line 1
SyntaxError: keyword can't be an expression

>>> {'foo-bar': 1}
{'foo-bar': 1}

Answer 6

They look pretty much the same on Python 3.2.

As gnibbler pointed out, the first doesn't need to lookup dict, which should make it a tiny bit faster.

>>> def literal():
...   d = {'one': 1, 'two': 2}
...
>>> def constructor():
...   d = dict(one='1', two='2')
...
>>> import dis
>>> dis.dis(literal)
  2           0 BUILD_MAP                2
              3 LOAD_CONST               1 (1)
              6 LOAD_CONST               2 ('one')
              9 STORE_MAP
             10 LOAD_CONST               3 (2)
             13 LOAD_CONST               4 ('two')
             16 STORE_MAP
             17 STORE_FAST               0 (d)
             20 LOAD_CONST               0 (None)
             23 RETURN_VALUE
>>> dis.dis(constructor)
  2           0 LOAD_GLOBAL              0 (dict)
              3 LOAD_CONST               1 ('one')
              6 LOAD_CONST               2 ('1')
              9 LOAD_CONST               3 ('two')
             12 LOAD_CONST               4 ('2')
             15 CALL_FUNCTION          512
             18 STORE_FAST               0 (d)
             21 LOAD_CONST               0 (None)
             24 RETURN_VALUE