如何从字典列表中通过字典值y获取字典值x

Question

(Python 2.x) A list of dicts with only unique key-value pairs, sorted alfabetically by name, names are unique as well:

dictlist = [
    {'name': 'Monty', 'has': 'eggs'},
    {'name': 'Terry', 'has': 'bacon'}    
    ]

I want to get what a given name has, by name. The following works.

names = ['Monty', 'Terry']

print dictlist[names.index('Terry')]['has']

I've made a parallel list with just names in the same order as the names in the dictlist, so I can make use of the order of the list. (I could fill names with a for loop, but that's not relevant here).

From here , among others, I know I could do this:

print next((d['has'] for d in dictlist if d['name'] == 'Terry'), None) 

but that's only better if dictlist isn't sorted by name.

So I'm wondering if there isn't a more concise way of doing this, preferably one that's at least as readable as the first method?

Answer 1

I would not use a list at all. I would use a dictionary instead.

dictlist = {
    'Monty': {'has': 'eggs'},
    'Terry': {'has': 'bacon'}    
    }

This allows you to look up values by name like so: dictlist['Monty']['has']

If you must use a list then I think you have a good solution as-is.