Iterating over multidimensional list in Python

Question

I am trying to iterate over a multidimensional list in Python but it is not acting as I would expect.

POIs = {'GTA': {'areas': [{'lat': 43.7, 'range': '40km', 'long': -79.416}]}, 'Montreal': {'areas': [{'lat': 45.509, 'range': '40km', 'long': -73.588}]}}

for POI in POIs:
    print POI

This returns strings

GTA
Montreal

If I did a similar thing using .each in Ruby it would pass the hash. Is there a fundamental difference in how Python and Ruby deal with array loops? Or is there a better way to try and achieve .each style iteration in Python?

NL - SE listen to your users · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-07 15:06:27Z

1

This is a dictionary rather than a list, so you're printing the keys in your example. You can print the values as well with the following code:

for POI in POIs:
    print POI, POIs[POI]

answered Nov 7, 2013 at 15:06

NL - SE listen to your users

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mdml · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-07 15:02:44Z

1

If you want the values in addition to the keys when iterating over a dictionary, use .items() or .iteritems(). The important point here is you have a dictionary, rather than a multi-dimensional list (a multi-dimensional list would look like L = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]]).

POIs = {'GTA': {'areas': [{'lat': 43.7, 'range': '40km', 'long': -79.416}]}, 'Montreal': {'areas': [{'lat': 45.509, 'range': '40km', 'long': -73.588}]}}
for POI, areas in POIs.iteritems():
    print POI, areas

Output

GTA {'areas': [{'lat': 43.7, 'range': '40km', 'long': -79.416}]}
Montreal {'areas': [{'lat': 45.509, 'range': '40km', 'long': -73.588}]}

answered Nov 7, 2013 at 15:02

mdml

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2 Comments

Gregology Over a year ago

That's perfect, now just waiting 10 mins to accept the answer :) Thanks @mtitan8

mdml Over a year ago

Great, glad to be of help!

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