[Python-Dev] dict() enhancement idea? (original) (raw)

Thomas Heller theller@python.net
21 Nov 2002 17:35:15 +0100

Just van Rossum <just@letterror.com> writes:

I sometimes use an idiom like

def dictfromkeywords(**kwargs): return kwargs d = dictfromkeywords( akey = 12, anotherkey = "foo", ...etc. )

For me it's usually spelled a shorter way:

def DICT(**kw): return kw

d = DICT(akey=12, anotherkey="foo")

Looks nicer than the long name, IMO, and complements 'dict'.

It just occured to me that the dict constructor could easily be overloaded with this behavior: it currently takes no keyword arguments[*], so the kwargs dict could simply be used to initialize the new dict.

Usually I do not create dictionaries by calling the constructor, because I never can remember which arguments I have to use.

This change would make me change my mind again to use it again, so a +1.

Thomas