GeezerVison is showing docs.python.org — Dictionary Objects
Dictionary Objects¶
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type PyDictObject¶
This subtype of PyObject represents a Python dictionary object.
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PyTypeObject PyDict_Type¶
- Part of the Stable ABI.
This instance of PyTypeObject represents the Python dictionary
type. This is the same object as dict in the Python layer.
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int PyDict_Check(PyObject *p)¶
Return true if p is a dict object or an instance of a subtype of the dict
type. This function always succeeds.
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int PyDict_CheckExact(PyObject *p)¶
Return true if p is a dict object, but not an instance of a subtype of
the dict type. This function always succeeds.
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PyObject *PyDict_New()¶
- Return value: New reference. Part of the Stable ABI.
Return a new empty dictionary, or NULL on failure.
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PyObject *PyDictProxy_New(PyObject *mapping)¶
- Return value: New reference. Part of the Stable ABI.
Return a types.MappingProxyType object for a mapping which
enforces read-only behavior. This is normally used to create a view to
prevent modification of the dictionary for non-dynamic class types.
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void PyDict_Clear(PyObject *p)¶
- Part of the Stable ABI.
Empty an existing dictionary of all key-value pairs.
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int PyDict_Contains(PyObject *p, PyObject *key)¶
- Part of the Stable ABI.
Determine if dictionary p contains key. If an item in p is matches
key, return 1, otherwise return 0. On error, return -1.
This is equivalent to the Python expression key in p.
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PyObject *PyDict_Copy(PyObject *p)¶
- Return value: New reference. Part of the Stable ABI.
Return a new dictionary that contains the same key-value pairs as p.
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int PyDict_SetItem(PyObject *p, PyObject *key, PyObject *val)¶
- Part of the Stable ABI.
Insert val into the dictionary p with a key of key. key must be
hashable; if it isn’t, TypeError will be raised. Return
0 on success or -1 on failure. This function does not steal a
reference to val.
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int PyDict_SetItemString(PyObject *p, const char *key, PyObject *val)¶
- Part of the Stable ABI.
This is the same as PyDict_SetItem(), but key is
specified as a const char* UTF-8 encoded bytes string,
rather than a PyObject*.
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int PyDict_DelItem(PyObject *p, PyObject *key)¶
- Part of the Stable ABI.
Remove the entry in dictionary p with key key. key must be hashable;
if it isn’t, TypeError is raised.
If key is not in the dictionary, KeyError is raised.
Return 0 on success or -1 on failure.
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int PyDict_DelItemString(PyObject *p, const char *key)¶
- Part of the Stable ABI.
This is the same as PyDict_DelItem(), but key is
specified as a const char* UTF-8 encoded bytes string,
rather than a PyObject*.
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PyObject *PyDict_GetItem(PyObject *p, PyObject *key)¶
- Return value: Borrowed reference. Part of the Stable ABI.
Return the object from dictionary p which has a key key. Return NULL
if the key key is not present, but without setting an exception.
Changed in version 3.10: Calling this API without GIL held had been allowed for historical
reason. It is no longer allowed.
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PyObject *PyDict_GetItemWithError(PyObject *p, PyObject *key)¶
- Return value: Borrowed reference. Part of the Stable ABI.
Variant of PyDict_GetItem() that does not suppress
exceptions. Return NULL with an exception set if an exception
occurred. Return NULL without an exception set if the key
wasn’t present.
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PyObject *PyDict_GetItemString(PyObject *p, const char *key)¶
- Return value: Borrowed reference. Part of the Stable ABI.
This is the same as PyDict_GetItem(), but key is specified as a
const char* UTF-8 encoded bytes string, rather than a
PyObject*.
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PyObject *PyDict_SetDefault(PyObject *p, PyObject *key, PyObject *defaultobj)¶
- Return value: Borrowed reference.
This is the same as the Python-level dict.setdefault(). If present, it
returns the value corresponding to key from the dictionary p. If the key
is not in the dict, it is inserted with value defaultobj and defaultobj
is returned. This function evaluates the hash function of key only once,
instead of evaluating it independently for the lookup and the insertion.
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PyObject *PyDict_Items(PyObject *p)¶
- Return value: New reference. Part of the Stable ABI.
Return a PyListObject containing all the items from the dictionary.
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PyObject *PyDict_Keys(PyObject *p)¶
- Return value: New reference. Part of the Stable ABI.
Return a PyListObject containing all the keys from the dictionary.
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PyObject *PyDict_Values(PyObject *p)¶
- Return value: New reference. Part of the Stable ABI.
Return a PyListObject containing all the values from the dictionary
p.
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Py_ssize_t PyDict_Size(PyObject *p)¶
- Part of the Stable ABI.
Return the number of items in the dictionary. This is equivalent to
len(p) on a dictionary.
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int PyDict_Next(PyObject *p, Py_ssize_t *ppos, PyObject **pkey, PyObject **pvalue)¶
- Part of the Stable ABI.
Iterate over all key-value pairs in the dictionary p. The
Py_ssize_t referred to by ppos must be initialized to 0
prior to the first call to this function to start the iteration; the
function returns true for each pair in the dictionary, and false once all
pairs have been reported. The parameters pkey and pvalue should either
point to PyObject* variables that will be filled in with each key
and value, respectively, or may be NULL. Any references returned through
them are borrowed. ppos should not be altered during iteration. Its
value represents offsets within the internal dictionary structure, and
since the structure is sparse, the offsets are not consecutive.
For example:
PyObject *key, *value;
Py_ssize_t pos = 0;
while (PyDict_Next(self->dict, &pos, &key, &value)) {
/* do something interesting with the values... */
...
}
The dictionary p should not be mutated during iteration. It is safe to
modify the values of the keys as you iterate over the dictionary, but only
so long as the set of keys does not change. For example:
PyObject *key, *value;
Py_ssize_t pos = 0;
while (PyDict_Next(self->dict, &pos, &key, &value)) {
long i = PyLong_AsLong(value);
if (i == -1 && PyErr_Occurred()) {
return -1;
}
PyObject *o = PyLong_FromLong(i + 1);
if (o == NULL)
return -1;
if (PyDict_SetItem(self->dict, key, o) < 0) {
Py_DECREF(o);
return -1;
}
Py_DECREF(o);
}
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int PyDict_Merge(PyObject *a, PyObject *b, int override)¶
- Part of the Stable ABI.
Iterate over mapping object b adding key-value pairs to dictionary a.
b may be a dictionary, or any object supporting PyMapping_Keys()
and PyObject_GetItem(). If override is true, existing pairs in a
will be replaced if a matching key is found in b, otherwise pairs will
only be added if there is not a matching key in a. Return 0 on
success or -1 if an exception was raised.
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int PyDict_Update(PyObject *a, PyObject *b)¶
- Part of the Stable ABI.
This is the same as PyDict_Merge(a, b, 1) in C, and is similar to
a.update(b) in Python except that PyDict_Update() doesn’t fall
back to the iterating over a sequence of key value pairs if the second
argument has no “keys” attribute. Return 0 on success or -1 if an
exception was raised.
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int PyDict_MergeFromSeq2(PyObject *a, PyObject *seq2, int override)¶
- Part of the Stable ABI.
Update or merge into dictionary a, from the key-value pairs in seq2.
seq2 must be an iterable object producing iterable objects of length 2,
viewed as key-value pairs. In case of duplicate keys, the last wins if
override is true, else the first wins. Return 0 on success or -1
if an exception was raised. Equivalent Python (except for the return
value):
def PyDict_MergeFromSeq2(a, seq2, override):
for key, value in seq2:
if override or key not in a:
a[key] = value
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int PyDict_AddWatcher(PyDict_WatchCallback callback)¶
Register callback as a dictionary watcher. Return a non-negative integer
id which must be passed to future calls to PyDict_Watch(). In case
of error (e.g. no more watcher IDs available), return -1 and set an
exception.
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int PyDict_ClearWatcher(int watcher_id)¶
Clear watcher identified by watcher_id previously returned from
PyDict_AddWatcher(). Return 0 on success, -1 on error (e.g.
if the given watcher_id was never registered.)
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int PyDict_Watch(int watcher_id, PyObject *dict)¶
Mark dictionary dict as watched. The callback granted watcher_id by
PyDict_AddWatcher() will be called when dict is modified or
deallocated. Return 0 on success or -1 on error.
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int PyDict_Unwatch(int watcher_id, PyObject *dict)¶
Mark dictionary dict as no longer watched. The callback granted
watcher_id by PyDict_AddWatcher() will no longer be called when
dict is modified or deallocated. The dict must previously have been
watched by this watcher. Return 0 on success or -1 on error.
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type PyDict_WatchEvent¶
Enumeration of possible dictionary watcher events: PyDict_EVENT_ADDED,
PyDict_EVENT_MODIFIED, PyDict_EVENT_DELETED, PyDict_EVENT_CLONED,
PyDict_EVENT_CLEARED, or PyDict_EVENT_DEALLOCATED.
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typedef int (*PyDict_WatchCallback)(PyDict_WatchEvent event, PyObject *dict, PyObject *key, PyObject *new_value)¶
Type of a dict watcher callback function.
If event is PyDict_EVENT_CLEARED or PyDict_EVENT_DEALLOCATED, both
key and new_value will be NULL. If event is PyDict_EVENT_ADDED
or PyDict_EVENT_MODIFIED, new_value will be the new value for key.
If event is PyDict_EVENT_DELETED, key is being deleted from the
dictionary and new_value will be NULL.
PyDict_EVENT_CLONED occurs when dict was previously empty and another
dict is merged into it. To maintain efficiency of this operation, per-key
PyDict_EVENT_ADDED events are not issued in this case; instead a
single PyDict_EVENT_CLONED is issued, and key will be the source
dictionary.
The callback may inspect but must not modify dict; doing so could have
unpredictable effects, including infinite recursion. Do not trigger Python
code execution in the callback, as it could modify the dict as a side effect.
If event is PyDict_EVENT_DEALLOCATED, taking a new reference in the
callback to the about-to-be-destroyed dictionary will resurrect it and
prevent it from being freed at this time. When the resurrected object is
destroyed later, any watcher callbacks active at that time will be called
again.
Callbacks occur before the notified modification to dict takes place, so
the prior state of dict can be inspected.
If the callback sets an exception, it must return -1; this exception will
be printed as an unraisable exception using PyErr_WriteUnraisable().
Otherwise it should return 0.
There may already be a pending exception set on entry to the callback. In
this case, the callback should return 0 with the same exception still
set. This means the callback may not call any other API that can set an
exception unless it saves and clears the exception state first, and restores
it before returning.
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Last updated on Oct 26, 2026 (15:00 UTC).
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