On Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 15:32, Alan Gauld <alan.ga...@btinternet.com> wrote: > On 10/09/11 19:08, Richard D. Moores wrote: > >> Some have suggested using the shelve module. I looked at it but >> couldn't see in detail how to use it. > > Did you read the help page?
I did. I can see it would be a useful reference once I learned from elsewhere how to use shelve. > It says: > > import shelve > d = shelve.open(filename) # open, with (g)dbm filename -- no suffix > > d[key] = data # store data at key > data = d[key] # retrieve a COPY of the data at key > del d[key] # delete data stored at key > flag = d.has_key(key) # true if the key exists > list = d.keys() # a list of all existing keys (slow!) > d.close() # close it > > > So you open the file and from that point on treat it exactly like a > dictionary. I'm still a bit shaky about dictionaries. > Then close the file at the end. > > Now which part don't you understand? Much of what comes after that is beyond me. > The ony bit that migt confuse is the mention of gdbm filename which just > means give it a filename without any suffix...just ignore the gdbm > reference. Thanks for your encouragement Alan, but I'm still looking among my Python books for a good exposition of shelve. Dick _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
