How important are dictionaries in the real world of coding?

Here is a link you can go to; scroll about 3/4 of the way down and you will find info about dictionaries that might be of help to you. https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/datastructures.html

Jeremy has provided some great links for you. I would just like to add an example to kind of give you the scope of their importance.

Go to your profile page and right after the URL in the address bar when you are there (keep the URL intact) add a period and json (.json) and then hit enter.

If you don't have a json reader extension installed in your browser, this will look VERY messy, but this is basically 'your life' here on Treehouse. Every course, every badge, every point. Goes into this mix of Arrays and Dictionaries and Arrays of arrays and Dictionaries of Arrays, etc... This is how Treehouse displays your points and badges and courses.

So... yeah, kind of important.

I also struggled quite a bit with them in the beginning, but just keep working on them and it will eventually produce that Ah-Ha!!! moment. Try a different language. Arrays and Dictionaries are used in many, many languages, and will maybe some minor syntax, they all pretty much function exactly the same way. But, in a different language, you will be exposed to a different perspective and that just may be the Ah-ha!

Keep Coding! :)

Java's "Dictionary" is called Maps (HashMaps, TreeMaps, etc.) That is what I learned first and it made it easier for me to understand the dictionary in Python.