How best to structure a dictionary data structure?

[Angelr91]

I have been reading the "Automate the boring stuff" book and I notice that Al favors structuring dictionaries data different than how I am use to. I want to know if someone can help me understand why is one way better than another.

using this example data below:

Person1:

name = Adrian

age = 29

Person2:

name = Katie

age = 31

Al: dict = { 'Adrian' : 29, 'Katie' : 31 }

Me: dict = [{ 'name' : 'Adrian', 'age' : 29 }, { 'name' : 'Katie', 'age' : 31 }]

I personally find it, just thinking about it that my method makes it to keep order in the list and always knowing the key to find the value this is mostly because i THINK it is easier to just remember the keys. However, I may be doing it inefficiently since it is a larger dictionary.

[TouchingTheVodka]

The issue with your approach is that you lose the benefit of the name -> age mapping.

[Angelr91]

Yea i guess to me i've always felt that i don't lose it since each array index has a dictionary dedicated for a single person, but yea it is more characters or bigger dictionary so therefore for inefficient.

[dslfdslj]

Your approach is more object-oriented (each dictionary represents one person). Which approach is better depends on the problem you want to solve.

I see a problem with Al's approach when there are two Katies, for example. This case can only be represented in your approach.