Tas 1/2: How do i iterate through the dictionary properly?

I did not use dict because course is already an iterable dictionary comprised of the key (courses such as 'Python Basics' with values (a list of topics). I agree with creating an empty list ('returnable') as a first step. What I did is ran it on the side with some extra print statements to see what is being iterated. for example if you simply use for key in COURSES and print key on each loop you get an idea of what you are looking at. Then considering your key (which could be a set of topics) see if it has the right set relationship to what you are iterating on. Consider the set operators to get the best choice.

Hi Frank Genova.

I am trying to follow your advice. I get, however, a syntax error.

This is what I put in the script in workspace:

COURSES = {
    "Python Basics": {"Python", "functions", "variables",
                      "booleans", "integers", "floats",
                      "arrays", "strings", "exceptions",
                      "conditions", "input", "loops"},
    "Java Basics": {"Java", "strings", "variables",
                    "input", "exceptions", "integers",
                    "booleans", "loops"},
    "PHP Basics": {"PHP", "variables", "conditions",
                   "integers", "floats", "strings",
                   "booleans", "HTML"},
    "Ruby Basics": {"Ruby", "strings", "floats",
                    "integers", "conditions",
                    "functions", "input"}


def covers(param):
    returnable = []
    for course in COURSES:
        if COURSES[course] & param:
            returnable.append(course)
    return returnable
    print(returnable)

if you want to print() what was returned then you should move print() to the edge and you would call covers(param) from within the print().

also 'and' does not equal '&' for sets for sets '&' implies intersection

intersection(*others) set & other Return a new set with elements common to the set and all others.

https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html?highlight=set#set

As it stands I do not think it will hit your print because you have it indented within the function.

def covers(param):
     # your code
    return returnable

print(covers({"Python"}) # note it is not in covers() function

The & made perfect sense. It's about intersection!

For the printing, though, I think I did something out of syntax. I get an error on line 17, which is def covers(param):

def covers(param):
    returnable = []
    for course in COURSES:
        if COURSES[course] & param:
            returnable.append(course)
    return returnable

print(covers({"Python"}))

I also tried: print covers({"Python"})