CS105: Introduction to Python

Given a dictionary d and a key k, it is easy to find the corresponding value v = d[k]. This operation is called a lookup.

But what if you have v and you want to find k? You have two problems: first, there might be more than one key that maps to the value v. Depending on the application, you might be able to pick one, or you might have to make a list that contains all of them. Second, there is no simple syntax to do a reverse lookup; you have to search.

Here is a function that takes a value and returns the first key that maps to that value:

def reverse_lookup(d, v):
    for k in d:
        if d[k] == v:
            return k
    raise LookupError()

This function is yet another example of the search pattern, but it uses a feature we haven’t seen before, raise. The raise statement causes an exception; in this case it causes a LookupError, which is a built-in exception used to indicate that a lookup operation failed.

If we get to the end of the loop, that means v doesn’t appear in the dictionary as a value, so we raise an exception.

Here is an example of a successful reverse lookup:

>>> h = histogram('parrot')
>>> key = reverse_lookup(h, 2)
>>> key
'r'

And an unsuccessful one:

>>> key = reverse_lookup(h, 3)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "<stdin>", line 5, in reverse_lookup
LookupError

The effect when you raise an exception is the same as when Python raises one: it prints a traceback and an error message.

When you raise an exception, you can provide a detailed error message as an optional argument. For example:

>>> raise LookupError('value does not appear in the dictionary')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
LookupError: value does not appear in the dictionary

A reverse lookup is much slower than a forward lookup; if you have to do it often, or if the dictionary gets big, the performance of your program will suffer.