[Python] Pre declared dictionary size limit?

Question

I have a big dictionary i constantly reference in my code so i have it initialized at the top:

import ...

myDictionary = {'a':'avalue','b':'bvalue',...}

code ...

But when i try to get values, some of the keys are not found. It appears as though Python is chopping my dictionary due to a size limit. I tried searching google but couldn't find anything on this.

I ended up dumping the key:value mappings into a separate file and wrote a function that would build the dictionary by reading in the file.

It would be nice to know why this is happening... even better to find a cleaner way to still have my dictionary.

EDIT: Dictionary has over 1,700 keys

Answer 1

Python does not have a dictionary size limit. I've had dictionaries with well over 1 million keys. Could you post more of the code?

Answer 2

One thing you might want to look for is that the keys in your dictionary are not duplicates. For example, in the following code:

>>> d = {'1': 'hello', '2': 'world', '1': 'new'}
>>> d
{'1': 'new', '2': 'world'}
>>> 

because I used the key '1' twice, only the last one appeared and thus I was left with a dictionary of size 2 rather than 3.

Answer 3

No problem with 300 here

>>> s=", ".join("'%s':'%s'"%(x,x) for x in range(300))
>>> d=eval("{%s}"%s)
>>> len(d)
300

or 10000

>>> s=", ".join("'%s':'%s'"%(x,x) for x in xrange(10000))
>>> d=eval("{%s}"%s)
>>> len(d)
10000