How can I get an element of a list nested in a dictionary according to user input?-CodePudding

I've been playing around with dictionaries and what they can do, when using a list as a value, I can't retrieve the list according to a user's input let alone an element within the list. All I get is 'TypeError: unhashable type: 'dict' The code used was:

dictionary = {'dictA': {'keyA': [1, 2, 3]}, 'dictB': {'keyB': [4, 5, 6]}}

#retrieving the the list from provided key#
def getting_the_list(nested_dict, key):
    values = dictionary[nested_dict][key]
    return values

#retrieving the nested dictionary according to user input#
def nested_dict(nested_dict):
    dict_in_dict = dictionary[nested_dict]
    return dict_in_dict

#having user choose dict#
inPut = input('which dict?\n')
nested_dict = nested_dict(inPut)
value = getting_the_list(nested_dict, inPut)
print(value)

However, when I use a more direct method to retrieve the list or an element within the list, I get the desired result.

dictionary = {'dictA': {'keyA': [1, 2, 3]}}


#retrieving the the list from provided key#
def getting_the_list(nested_dict, key):
    values = dictionary[nested_dict][key]
    return values


values = getting_the_list('dictA', 'keyA')
print(values)

Is this because the user input method stores the entire dictionary not the name of the dictionary as a string (or int, float, etc.)? if so, how can I retrieve a list element according to a user's input?

CodePudding user response：

You are calling the same key for the main dict and the inner (nested) dict, but obviously in your example this can not work and you should ask a new key.

Moreover you return the inner (nested) dict, so you should change the getting_the_list function.

dictionary = {"dictA": {"keyA": [1, 2, 3]}, "dictB": {"keyB": [4, 5, 6]}}

# retrieving the the list from provided key#
def getting_the_list(nested_dict, key):
    values = nested_dict[key]
    return values


# retrieving the nested dictionary according to user input#
def nested_dict(nested_dict):
    dict_in_dict = dictionary[nested_dict]
    return dict_in_dict


# having user choose dict#
input_out = input("which dict?\n")
input_nested = input("which inner key?\n")

nested_dict = nested_dict(input_out)
value = getting_the_list(nested_dict, input_nested)
print(value)