A dictionary creates key:value pairs. For example, let's say you have the following key:value pairs.

In this example, a variable named dict is created, and the dict variable contains the key:value pairs.

dict = {'name': 'Jeremy', 'id': 123456, 'occupation': 'Engineer'}

Print

You can print the contents of the entire dictionary.

print(dict)

print dict will print all of the keys and values in the dictionary, like this.

{'name': 'Jeremy', 'id': 123456, 'occupation': 'Engineer'}

Or, you can print the value of a key. For example, the following will print the value "Jeremy" in the "name" key.

print(dict['name'])

Start with an empty hash

Following will create an empty dictionary (does not contain any key value pairs).

dict = {}

Then, somewhere in the script key:value pairs will be created. In this example, a key called "name" is created with a value of "Jeremy" and another key called "occupation" with a value of "engineer".

dict.update( {'name' : 'Jeremy'} )
dict.update( {'occupation' : 'engineer'} )

You can then print the values associated with a hash key.

print(dict['name'])
print(dict['occupation'])