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Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries

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On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 6:26 PM, Frank Millman <frank@chagford.com> wrote:
>> words_by_length = {}
>> for word in open("/usr/share/dict/words"):
>>    words_by_length.setdefault(len(word), []).append(word)
>>
>> This will, very conveniently, give you a list of all words of a
>> particular length. (It's actually a little buggy but you get the
>> idea.)
>>
>
> Thanks, that is neat.
>
> I haven't spotted the bug yet! Can you give me a hint?

Run those lines in interactive Python (and change the file name if
you're not on Unix or if you don't have a dictionary at that path),
and then look at what's in words_by_length[23] - in the dictionary I
have here (Debian Wheezy, using an American English dictionary - it's
a symlink to (ultimately) /usr/share/dict/american-english), there are
five entries in that list. Count how many letters there are in them.

Also, there's a technical bug [1] in that I ought to use 'with' to
ensure that the file's properly closed. But for a simple example,
that's not critical.

ChrisA

[1] As Julia Jellicoe pointed out, it's an awful thing to be haunted
by a technical bug!

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Keeping track of things with dictionaries Giuliano Bertoletti <gbe32241@libero.it> - 2014-04-06 09:44 +0200
  Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2014-04-06 10:23 +0200
  Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Josh English <Joshua.R.English@gmail.com> - 2014-04-07 21:02 -0700
    Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-04-08 14:08 +1000
      Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Josh English <Joshua.R.English@gmail.com> - 2014-04-07 23:22 -0700
    Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries "Frank Millman" <frank@chagford.com> - 2014-04-08 09:14 +0200
      Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2014-04-08 07:47 +0000
    Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2014-04-08 01:53 -0600
    Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-04-08 18:00 +1000
    Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> - 2014-04-08 10:21 +0200
    Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries "Frank Millman" <frank@chagford.com> - 2014-04-08 10:26 +0200
    Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries "Frank Millman" <frank@chagford.com> - 2014-04-08 10:31 +0200
      Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries alex23 <wuwei23@gmail.com> - 2014-04-09 12:34 +1000
    Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-04-08 18:35 +1000
      Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2014-04-09 12:43 +1200
        Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-04-09 12:33 +1000
          Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries alex23 <wuwei23@gmail.com> - 2014-04-09 12:45 +1000
            Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2014-04-08 21:19 -0600
            Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Gene Heskett <gheskett@wdtv.com> - 2014-04-08 23:31 -0400
            Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2014-04-08 21:37 -0600
    Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries "Frank Millman" <frank@chagford.com> - 2014-04-08 11:28 +0200
    Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-04-08 19:34 +1000
    Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries "Frank Millman" <frank@chagford.com> - 2014-04-08 11:41 +0200
  Re: Keeping track of things with dictionaries Gene Heskett <gheskett@wdtv.com> - 2014-04-09 05:51 -0400

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