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Python Python Collections (2016, retired 2019) Dictionaries String Formatting with Dictionaries

Posted by Dima Mykhaylov
Dima Mykhaylov
19,379 Points

I cannot understand how to complete this challenge and how to unpack python dictionaries

I feel as if this code challenge is drastically different from the video prior to it and I cannot seem to figure out how to do this. It also doesn't help that I cannot quite understand what packing and unpacking a dictionary means and how you would apply it to this challenge?

string_factory.py 
def favorite_food(dict):
    return "Hi, I'm {name} and I love to eat {food}!".format()

2 Answers

Dave StSomeWhere
Dave StSomeWhere
19,870 Points
Dave StSomeWhere
Dave StSomeWhere
19,870 Points

Here's how I think about this challenge...

First you are receiving a dictionary which looks like:

dict1 = {
    "name": "Dima",
    "food": "Pizza"
}

So then you can access the dictionary with:

my_name = dict1["name"]
my_food = dict1["food"]

Now if you pass dict1 to a function, unpacking will break out the function into the key value pairs

If I call some_function(dict1) - passing the dictionary

Then I can use the slick unpacking to break out the key value pairs...

def some_function(**dict_in):
    #  do stuff with name and food

#  is a spiffy way to do below, where you don't need to know the specific dictionary details
#  for this example it is the same as 
def some_function(name="Dima", food="Pizza"):
    # do stuff with name and food

Hope that helps

Dima Mykhaylov
Dima Mykhaylov
19,379 Points

Thanks for the response. I understand it a bit better now.

unknown member
PLUS
unknown member
Courses Plus Student 18,949 Points
unknown member
unknown member
Courses Plus Student 18,949 Points

Insert **dict into format method, press Check Work and boom - you're done. The thing is when you put dictionary through this function it will look for keys "name" and "food" and at the end will return values respectively.