Reference a new dictionary key with a variable

[slouw]

I want to read files with parameters and assignments in order to configure a new device.
It seemed correct to read variables and their assignments into a dictionary from a text file.
But I have hit a snag in that I cannot work out how to read variables directly into a dictionary.
I have stripped down my script to the following to try and illustrate this.

# $language = "python"
# $interface = "1.0"
#
import time
import datetime
import sys

#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
# This is how I want me dictionary to look after
# assignment from reading a text file
#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dict_Param = {
"<IP_ADDRESS>": "10.10.10.10",
"<PREFIXLENGTH>": "24",
"<HOSTNAME>": "blahblah"
}


Dict_Param = {}

#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
# Variables and their assignments are read from
# a text file into 2 lists as shown
# I have this working just stripped out for simplicity
#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
KeyStr = ["<IP_ADDRESS>","<PREFIXLENGTH>","<HOSTNAME>"]
AssignStr = ["10.10.10.10", "24", "blahblah"]

#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
# This does not work
# But I hope it illustrates what I am trying
# and failing to do
# That is add the pairs defined in the 2 lists above
# as key entries in my dictionary
#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dict_Param['KeyStr[0]'] = AssignStr[0]
Dict_Param['KeyStr[1]'] = AssignStr[1]
Dict_Param['KeyStr[2]'] = AssignStr[2]

print Dict_Param
#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bgagnon]

Hi slouw,

This seems more like a Python question than a SecureCRT question:

https://docs.python.org/2.7/library/...ing-types-dict

(I personally think there are better resources than the above "official" documentation, but you would need to search those out yourself.)

But what do you mean by "This does not work"?

#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
# This does not work

What error do you get? What results do you get? How does that differ from the expected results?

You need to add the key+item into the dictionary as a pair and I am not sure any of your code is doing that. Instead it looks like you are replacing key with item.

[slouw]

Thanks for reply and link.
By "this does not work" I mean that I do not end up with a dictionary populated as shown earlier in the code fragment.
This is what I want my dictionary to look like once I have read in the parameters from my text file:

Dict_Param = {
"<IP_ADDRESS>": "10.10.10.10",
"<PREFIXLENGTH>": "24",
"<HOSTNAME>": "blahblah"
}

I read the data from a file into a list easy enough, but assigning the list entries to key entries is where I get stuck.

[bgagnon]

Hi slouw,

Thanks for the clarification.

An eagle-eyed colleague spotted what may be the issue.

You are using ticks around the variable name for assignment, making it a literal instead of a variable.

Dict_Param['KeyStr[0]'] = AssignStr[0]

should be

Dict_Param[KeyStr[0]] = AssignStr[0]

If you fix it, the issue should be resolved.

[slouw]

And so it does thankyou.
Your help much appreciated...

This is a complete working code fragment

# $language = "python"
# $interface = "1.0"
#
Dict_Param = {}
KeyStr = ["<IP_ADDRESS>","<PREFIXLENGTH>","<HOSTNAME>"]
AssignStr = ["10.10.10.10","24","blahblah"]
print Dict_Param
for xxx in range(0, 3):
    Dict_Param[KeyStr[xxx]] = AssignStr[xxx]
print Dict_Param

[ogun]

The canonical way would probably be something like:

# $language = "python"
# $interface = "1.0"
#
KeyStr = ["<IP_ADDRESS>","<PREFIXLENGTH>","<HOSTNAME>"]
AssignStr = ["10.10.10.10","24","blahblah"]

Dict_Param = dict(zip(KeyStr, ValueStr))

Though it looks like you are parsing a csv file, in which case I would probably look into the csv module available in the standard library, more specifically the DictReader class. See here for details: https://docs.python.org/2.7/library/...csv.DictReader

[slouw]

Thanks Ogun.. interesting read and helpful