Question

I have a code "aaabbbcccdddeee" that I split up into 3 letter words (such as 'aaa','bbb','ccc' . . . and so on) and assigned a number value to them using d=dict(zip(('aaa','bbb','ccc','ddd','eee'),(123,234,345,456,567)))

If I have a random sequence of 3 letter words

RANDOM="'aaa','bbb','ddd','ccc','eee','ddd','bbb','aaa','eee','ccc'"

How can I create a list that converts the RANDOM list into a list composed of the number values that were assigned previously in the dictionary

Example: RANDOM="'aaa','bbb','ddd','ccc','eee','ddd','bbb','aaa','eee','ccc'"‘ to produce '123','234','456','345','567','456','234','123','567','345'

I found out how to do it for 1 value:

>>> x=d['aaa']

>>> print x

>>> 123

How do I do it for the whole list of RANDOM?
It does not work if i simply put:

>>> y=d['aaa','bbb','ddd','ccc',...]

Does anyone know why this won’t work or how to get it to work to get the full list of numbers . i.e. 123,234,456,345,…?

I have been messing with this on and off for a few weeks. It’s not homework if your wondering, but this can help me with my studies in other areas. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

y=d[‘aaa’,’bbb’,’ddd’,’ccc’,…]
won’t work because ‘aaa’,’bbb’,’ddd’,’ccc’ is not a valid key. The y = d[ … ] looks up a SINGLE key value, and returns the SINGLE matching entry for that key in the dictionary.

So, you just need to translate each entry one at a time.

y=d[‘aaa’]

x=d[‘bbb’]

z=d[‘ccc’]

and then a = [y, x, z] … etc.

or, being more intelligent, we can use a loop that loops based on the length of the RANDOM list.

a = list()

for x in RANDOM:

a.append(d[x])

or, to be fancy

a = [d[x] for x in RANDOM]