Question

I had a small requirement of making a specific attribute as primary key, such that by using this attribute I want to access the other attributes of the same row. Could any one help me please.

Description:: I had 4 arrays and I want to retrieve the data in the arrays corresponding to the row I have selected.In simple terms I am using Python as a database and store the retrieve the values of other tuples basing on a specific column value.

import string
import sys
from Tkinter import *
import win32com.client

win = Tk()
win.title("Sorting the list of employees as of desire")
win.geometry("600x600+200+50")
win.resizable()

class Emp(object):
    def __init__(self):
        i = 0


        def save():            
            b = self.e.get()
            #print "The name of employee is", b
            n.append(b) 

            c = self.a.get()
            #print "The age of employee is", c
            ge.append(c)  

            idf = self.i.get()
            #print "The Ide of the Employee is ", id            
            idee.append(idf)  

            de = self.d.get()
            # print "The Designation of the Employee is ", de            
            desi.append(de) 

            #print "\n"


        def clear():
            self.e.delete(0, END)
            self.a.delete(0, END)
            self.i.delete(0, END)
            self.d.delete(0, END)

        n = []
        Label(text="Employee form ", font="Verdana 18 bold italic").pack()
        Name = Label(text="Name ", font="Verdana 10 bold ")
        Name.place(relx=0.1, rely=0.5)
        Name.pack()
        self.e = Entry(text="Enter the name of the employee ")
        self.e.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor=CENTER)
        self.e.insert(0, "Name of Employee")
        self.e.pack()

        ge = []
        age = Label(text="Age ", font="Verdana 10 bold ")
        age.place(relx=0.1, rely=0.5)
        age.pack()
        self.a = Entry(text="Enter the age of the employee ")
        self.a.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor=CENTER)
        self.a.insert(0, "Age of Employee")
        self.a.pack()

        idee = []
        ide = Label(text="ID ", font="Verdana 10 bold ")
        ide.place(relx=0.1, rely=0.5)
        ide.pack()
        self.i = Entry(text="Enter the ID of the employee ")
        self.i.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor=CENTER)
        self.i.insert(0, "IDE of Employee")
        self.i.pack()


        desi = []
        des = Label(text="Designation ", font="Verdana 10 bold ")
        des.place(relx=0.1, rely=0.5)
        des.pack()
        self.d = Entry(text="The Designation of the employee ")
        self.d.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor=CENTER)
        self.d.insert(0, "Designation of Employee")
        self.d.pack()

        def printf():
            global i 

            xyz = len(n)
            for i in range(0, xyz):
                print "Details are ::", "Name is :", n[i], "Age is : ", ge[i], "Employee Id is :", idee[i], "Designation is :", desi[i] 
                print "\n"

        def sorting():
            sor = raw_input("Enter a to sort from A or z to sort in reverse order")
            xyz = len(n)
            if sor == 'a' or'A' :
                n.sort()
                for i in range(0, xyz):
                    print "Details are ::", "Name is :", n[i]#, "Age is : ", ge[i], "Employee Id is :", idee[i], "Designation is :", desi[i] 
                    print "\n"
            elif sor == 'z' or 'Z':
                n.sort()
                print "Details are ::", "Name is :", n[i], "Age is : ", ge[i], "Employee Id is :", idee[i], "Designation is :", desi[i] 
                n.reverse()
                for i in range(0, xyz):
                    print "Details are ::", "Name is :", n[i]#, "Age is : ", ge[i], "Employee Id is :", idee[i], "Designation is :", desi[i] 
                    print "\n"

        btn = Button(text="Save ", font="verdana 12 ", command=save)
        btn.pack(fill=X, expand=YES)
        btn.place(relx=0.85, rely=0.06, anchor=CENTER)

        btnc = Button(text="Next", font="verdana 12 ", command=clear)
        btnc.pack(fill=X, expand=YES)
        btnc.place(relx=0.85, rely=0.90, anchor=CENTER)      

        btnp = Button(text="print", font="verdana 12 ", command=printf)
        btnp.pack(fill=X, expand=YES)
        btnp.place(relx=0.6, rely=0.9, anchor=CENTER)      

        btns = Button(text="Sort", font="verdana 12 ", command=sorting)
        btns.pack(fill=X, expand=YES)
        btns.place(relx=0.3, rely=0.9, anchor=CENTER)





abj = Emp()
win.mainloop()

This is my code. After storing all the values in the respective arrays.I want to sort them basing on name, to the code I have written the output I got is the sorted array of only the name attribute, Instead I want all the corresponding values also to be sorted.Please help me

Answer 1

Replying to original question (it’s been erased):

You could use a python dict: http://docs.python.org/library/stdtypes.html#dict.

dataset = {}
dataset['key1'] = (value_1_1, value_1_2, value_1_3, value_1_4)
dataset['key2'] = (value_2_1, value_2_2, value_2_3, value_2_4)

Then if you wanted the values associated with ‘key2’:

row_of_interest = dataest['key2']

In the context of your code, using a dict:

More specifically, after seeing your code, one solution would be to change your save function to this:

def save():
    name = self.e.get()
    age = self.a.get()
    employee_id = self.i.get()
    employee_designation = self.d.get()
    self.employees[name] = (age, employee_id, employee_designation)

where employees is a dict. This gives you your primary key property stated in your question, but doesn’t give you easy access to sorted results as your code hints at.

OR, using a list:

def save():
    name = self.e.get()
    age = self.a.get()
    employee_id = self.i.get()
    employee_designation = self.d.get()
    self.employees.append((name, age, employee_id, employee_designation))

where employees is a list, not a dict. Then you can use the sorted built-in function (http://docs.python.org/library/functions.html#sorted) combined with the operator module to get your sorted results:

sorted(self.employees, key=operator.itemgetter(0), reverse=False)

This gives you easy access to results sorted by the first element (the names), but doesn’t treat any of the attributes as a special primary key.