https://deploy-preview-705--carpentries-website.netlify.app/blog/author/dan-mcglinn/Recent content in Dan McGlinn on The CarpentriesHugoen-usWed, 20 Nov 2024 10:51:28 -0500https://deploy-preview-705--carpentries-website.netlify.app/blog/2012/05/dictionaries-are-a-scientists-friend/Thu, 31 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://deploy-preview-705--carpentries-website.netlify.app/blog/2012/05/dictionaries-are-a-scientists-friend/<p><b>This post originally appeared on the <a href="https://software-carpentry.org/">Software Carpentry website.</a></b></p> <p>[Code]</p> <p>Today I would like to share with other scientists the power of <a href="http://docs.python.org/tutorial/datastructures.html#dictionaries">dictionaries</a>. I recently learned about this data structure during a Software Carpentry bootcamp that Greg Wilson and <a href="http://whitelab.weecology.org/">Ethan White</a> organized. Greg and Jason Pell (from Michigan State) visited Utah State University for a two day bootcamp where <a href="http://mcglinn.web.unc.edu/">I am a postdoc studying</a> patterns of biodiversity. During that time we covered a whole slew of topics, but today I wanted to demonstrate how dictionaries helped to significantly speed up my Python code.</p>