I've read in several places that a Python dictionary is analagous to some other languages' hash table (Perl's, for instance). But FMU a dictionary's keys are *themselves* hashed so that a hash table exists that maps hashed key values to keys in the dictionary. ISTM, then, that the analogy is at least somewhat faulty...except for the fact that a dictionary's keys could themselves be hashed redundantly...i.e., the values to be used as keys could be hashed, inserted into the dictionary (and mapped to their values, of course), and they would then be hashed (again) behind the scenes...IOW, ISTM that a dictionary is correctly understood generally as a mapping (as documentation indicates) and *could* be understood as a special case hash table itself...Is that accurate?
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