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Python Python Collections (2016, retired 2019) Dictionaries String Formatting with Dictionaries

Posted by Mohammad Alawad
Mohammad Alawad
1,877 Points

Actually I am not able to understand this challenge, the concept is very new for me and I can get it well.

I would be very thankful if someone can explain this concept for me or at least provide some external resources. I tried to solve this challenge but I cant, I need to understand this topic first.

string_factory.py 
# Example:
# values = [{"name": "Michelangelo", "food": "PIZZA"}, {"name": "Garfield", "food": "lasagna"}]
# string_factory(values)
# ["Hi, I'm Michelangelo and I love to eat PIZZA!", "Hi, I'm Garfield and I love to eat lasagna!"]

def string_factory (name=None,food=None):
    if name and food:
        print (list ("Hi, I'm {} and I love to eat {}!".format(name,food)))
    else:
        print ("no action")


value=({"name": "Michelangelo", "food": "PIZZA"})
value2=({"name": "Garfield", "food": "lasagna"})

string_factory(**value)
string_factory(**value2)

1 Answer

Christopher Shaw
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PLUS
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Christopher Shaw
Python Web Development Techdegree Graduate 58,248 Points
Christopher Shaw
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Christopher Shaw
Python Web Development Techdegree Graduate 58,248 Points

Good day.

The values you are given is a dictionary, so the function takes one argument. We are going to return a dictionary, so we need to make an empty one to add to.

def string_factory (values_item):
    items_to_return = []

We then loop though the item supplied and unpack the values into the formatted sting, and append it to our new dictionary

    for item in values_item:
        items_to_return.append("Hi, I'm {} and I love to eat {}!".format(item['name'], item['food']))

finally we return (not print)

    return items_to_return
Mohammad Alawad
Mohammad Alawad
1,877 Points

Thank you very much for your answer, I have tried it but I always get the message : string_factory() argument after ** must be a mapping, not list

by calling the function this way: values_item= [{"name": "Michelangelo", "food": "PIZZA"}, {"name": "Garfield", "food": "lasagna"}] string_factory(**values_item)

Please can you help me to find out why this is happening?

Regards,