Newbie question:
I have a dictionary called "rec". And a list called "db". db is my
database. rec are to be records in the database. In a loop I'm trying to
create a record and add it to my database. The key stmt is
db.append( rec )
This works initially but it seems that instead of copying the values in
rec and adding it to db, only a reference of rec is added to db. Thus
when I reassign rec with new data and then do another append I end up
with two records in my database but now the both contain the same data,
namely the latest version or rec.
So how do I add a dictionary into a list by value rather than by reference?
The complete code is here:
=========================================================
#!/usr/bin/python
import sys
inputfile = sys.argv[1]
keywords = [ 'place-name=',
'addr-line1=',
'addr-line2=',
'addr-city=',
'addr-state=',
'addr-country=',
'addr-postalcode=',
'mailaddr-line1=',
'mailaddr-line2=',
'mailaddr-city=',
'mailaddr-state=',
'mailaddr-country=',
'mailaddr-postalcode=',
'place-phone1=',
'place-phone2=',
'place-fax=',
'place-email1=',
'place-email2=' ]
def csv_it():
db = [] # the entire database of records
rec = {} # a single rec: a dictionary of field names and data pairs
fields = [] # list of field names collected so far for current record
for line in open(inputfile):
kword = getkeyword(line) # get keyword (or field name)
if kword:
# We've got a line with a keyword in it
if kword == keywords[0]:
# Starting a new record, so save current record
db.append( rec )
printdb(db, "stage 1")
# Now clear current record
fields = []
rec.clear()
dummylist = []
for i in range(1,len(keywords)+1):
dummylist.append('')
for k,d in zip(keywords,dummylist):
rec[k] = d
printdb(db, "stage 2")
# make sure we are not encountering a duplicate key word
if kword in fields:
print "Record contains duplicate field"
print line,
sys.exit()
fields.append(kword)
# collect our data and store it in the current record
data = line[line.find('=')+1:]
datalstrip = data.lstrip()
datarstrip = datalstrip.rstrip()
rec[kword] = datarstrip
printdb(db,"stage 3")
db.append( rec ) # don't forget whatever we have in our last record
# dump the database in comma separated value form
outstring = ''
for k in keywords:
outstring += '"'
outstring += k
outstring += '"'
outstring += ','
print outstring
for r in db:
outstring = ''
for k in keywords:
if r[k]:
outstring += '"'
outstring += r[k]
outstring += '"'
outstring += ','
print outstring
def getkeyword(line):
equal_index = line.find('=')
if equal_index >= 0:
kword = line[0:equal_index+1]
if kword in keywords:
return kword
else:
print "Invalid keyword at line:"
print line
sys.exit()
return None
def printdb( db, text ):
print " "
print "db %s = " % text
print db
print " "
if __name__ == '__main__':
csv_it()
====================================================
Thanks
Phill
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