a dict written as pKey = (prefix, pLen, origin)
val = dict.get(pKey) if val == None: dict[pKey] = (timeB, timeB) else: if val[0] > timeB: val[0] = timeB if val[1] < timeB: val[1] = timeB dict[pKey] = val and read back as for pKey, pVal in dict.iteritems(): print \ pKey[0], hash(pKey[0]), \ pKey[1], hash(pKey[1]), \ pKey[2], hash(pKey[2]), \ "hash=", hash(pKey), \ pVal[0], hash(pVal[0]), \ pVal[1], hash(pVal[1]) when run with | sort, produces 12.0.0.0 -2054516913 8 8 7018 329707286 hash= -604503432 917088000 917088000 917088000 917088000 12.0.0.0 -2054516913 8 8 7018 329707286 hash= -604503432 917088000 917088000 917088000 917088000 12.0.0.0 -2054516913 8 8 7018 329707286 hash= -604503432 917088000 917088000 917088000 917088000 12.0.0.0 -2054516913 8 8 7018 329707286 hash= -604503432 917088000 917088000 917088000 917088000 12.0.0.0 -2054516913 9 -1293912648 7018 329707286 hash= -1578430040 917088000 917088000 917088000 917088000 12.0.0.0 -2054516913 9 -1293912648 7018 329707286 hash= -1578430040 917088000 917088000 917088000 917088000 not that there are two entries with the same hash= i am utterly confused randy -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list