# Sounds like dictionaries is another name for hash tables

# keys can be any type of object (i.e. string, number etc.)

# You define a dictionary using curly braces

phonebook = {}

phonebook["Tom"] = "(012)345-6789"

phonebook["Dick"] = "(123)456-7890"

phonebook["Harry"] = "(234)567-8901"

number = phonebook["Tom"]

print "Tom's number is: " + number

# Another way to define a dictionary is as follows (javascript style)

salaries = {

"student": 0,

"software enginner": 100000,

"lawyer": 500000

}

print "Lawyers earn: " + str(salaries["lawyer"])

# What can be used as key to the dictionary?

# Anything hashable

# That means immutable objects.

# e.g. string, integer, tuple are immutable

# lists are "mutable"

# How to iterate over a dictionary?

# note that the keys won't be iterated over sequentially

# in the following example, salary of software engineer is printed first

for key, value in salaries.iteritems():

print "Salary for %s is %d" %(key, value)