With Python, can I keep a persistent dictionary and modify it?

python dictionary persistence object-persistence
snk picture snk · Aug 4, 2009 · Viewed 9.7k times · Source

So, I want to store a dictionary in a persistent file. Is there a way to use regular dictionary methods to add, print, or delete entries from the dictionary in that file?

It seems that I would be able to use cPickle to store the dictionary and load it, but I'm not sure where to take it from there.

Answer

Alex Martelli picture Alex Martelli · Aug 4, 2009

If your keys (not necessarily the values) are strings, the shelve standard library module does what you want pretty seamlessly.

Related questions

Iterating over dictionaries using 'for' loops

I am a bit puzzled by the following code: d = {'x': 1, 'y': 2, 'z': 3} for key in d: print key, 'corresponds to', d[key] What I don't understand is the key portion. How does Python recognize that it needs only to …

Read More
Check if a given key already exists in a dictionary

I wanted to test if a key exists in a dictionary before updating the value for the key. I wrote the following code: if 'key1' in dict.keys(): print "blah" else: print "boo" I think this is not the …

Read More
How can I add new keys to a dictionary?

Is it possible to add a key to a Python dictionary after it has been created? It doesn't seem to have an .add() method.

Read More