Junior — Middle
Can an object of a class be used as a key in a dictionary structure?
sobes.tech AI
Answer from AI
In Python, a class object can be used as a dictionary key if it is hashable. To do this, the class must implement the __hash__() and __eq__() methods. By default, user-defined class objects are hashable and compared by identity, but if you override __eq__, you should also define __hash__.
Example:
class Point:
def __init__(self, x, y):
self.x = x
self.y = y
def __eq__(self, other):
return isinstance(other, Point) and self.x == other.x and self.y == other.y
def __hash__(self):
return hash((self.x, self.y))
p1 = Point(1, 2)
p2 = Point(3, 4)
my_dict = {p1: "A", p2: "B"}
print(my_dict[p1]) # Will output "A"
If an object is not hashable, it cannot be used as a key.