This returns the value associated with the key 'color' from the diction-
ary alien_0:
green
You can have an unlimited number of key-value pairs in a dictionary.
For example, here’s the original alien_0 dictionary with two key-value pairs:
alien_0 = {'color': 'green', 'points': 5}
Now you can access either the color or the point value of alien_0. If a
player shoots down this alien, you can look up how many points they should
earn using code like this:
alien_0 = {'color': 'green', 'points': 5}
new_points = alien_0['points']
print(f"You just earned {new_points} points!")
Once the dictionary has been defined, we pull the value associated with
the key 'points' from the dictionary. This value is then assigned to the vari-
able new_points. The last line prints a statement about how many points the
player just earned:
You just earned 5 points!
If you run this code every time an alien is shot down, the alien’s point
value will be retrieved.
Adding New Key-Value Pairs
Dictionaries are dynamic structures, and you can add new key-value pairs
to a dictionary at any time. To add a new key-value pair, you would give the
name of the dictionary followed by the new key in square brackets, along
with the new value.
Let’s add two new pieces of information to the alien_0 dictionary: the
alien’s x- and y-coordinates, which will help us display the alien at a par-
ticular position on the screen. Let’s place the alien on the left edge of the
screen, 25 pixels down from the top. Because screen coordinates usually
start at the upper-left corner of the screen, we’ll place the alien on the left
edge of the screen by setting the x-coordinate to 0 and 25 pixels from the
top by setting its y-coordinate to positive 25, as shown here:
alien.py alien_0 = {'color': 'green', 'points': 5}
print(alien_0)
alien_0['x_position'] = 0
alien_0['y_position'] = 25
print(alien_0)
Dictionaries 93
