Python Dictionary Comprehension
dictionary, list-comprehension, python
Solution
There are dictionary comprehensions in Python 2.7+, but they don't work quite the way you're trying. Like a list comprehension, they create a new dictionary; you can't use them to add keys to an existing dictionary. Also, you have to specify the keys and values, although of course you can specify a dummy value if you like.
>>> d = {n: n**2 for n in range(5)}
>>> print d
{0: 0, 1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9, 4: 16}
If you want to set them all to True:
>>> d = {n: True for n in range(5)}
>>> print d
{0: True, 1: True, 2: True, 3: True, 4: True}
What you seem to be asking for is a way to set multiple keys at once on an existing dictionary. There's no direct shortcut for that. You can either loop like you already showed, or you could use a dictionary comprehension to create a new dict with the new values, and then do `oldDict.update(newDict)` to merge the new values into the old dict.
Problem
Is it possible to create a dictionary comprehension in Python (for the keys)? Without list comprehensions, you can use something like this: ``` l = [] for n in range(1, 11): l.append(n) ``` We can shorten this to a list comprehension: `l = [n for n in range(1, 11)]`. However, say I want to set a dictionary's keys to the same value. I can do: ``` d = {} for n in range(1, 11): d[n] = True # same value for each ``` I've tried this: ``` d = {} d[i for i in range(1, 11)] = True ``` However, I get a `SyntaxError` on the `for`. In addition (I don't need this part, but just wondering), can you set a dictionary's keys to a bunch of different values, like this: ``` d = {} for n in range(1, 11): d[n] = n ``` Is this possible with a dictionary comprehension? ``` d = {} d[i for i in range(1, 11)] = [x for x in range(1, 11)] ``` This also raises a `SyntaxError` on the `for`.