On Sat, 17 Nov 2012 10:01:01 -0800, chinjannisha wrote: > Hi I had one doubt.. I know very little bit of python .I wanted to know > when to use list,tuple,dictionary and set? Please reply me asap
Use a list when you want a list of items that should all be treated the same way: list_of_numbers = [1, 3, 5.1, 2, 6.5] total = sum(list_of_numbers) or when you need a collection of items where the order they are in is important: winners = ['george', 'susan', 'henry'] # 1st, 2nd, 3rd place print('The winner is:', winners[0]) Use a tuple when you want a collection of items that mean different things, a bit like a C struct or Pascal record: a = (23, "henry", True, 'engineer') b = (42, "natalie", False, 'manager') c = (17, "george", True, 'student') Use a dict when you need a collection of key:value mappings: config = {'name': 'fred', 'pagesize': 'A4', 'verbose': True, 'size': 18} address = {'fred': 'f...@example.com', 'sally': 'sally_sm...@example.com'} if config['verbose']: print('sending email...') send_email_to(address['fred'], "Subject: Hello") Use a set when you want to represent a collection of items and the order is not important: failed = {'fred', 'tom', 'sally'} # set literal syntax in Python 3 only # use set(['fred', 'tom', 'sally']) in Python 2 if 'george' in failed: print('George, you have failed!') -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list