[FIXED] Can't put dictionary values into list

Issue

from datetime import datetime

dict_place = 1
birth_dict = {}


def date_key(date_string):
    return datetime.strptime(date_string, "%d %b %Y")


while True:
    name = input("Enter name of person: ")
    birth_month = input("What month were they born?: ")
    birth_day = input("What day of the month were they born?: ")
    birth_year = input("what year were they born?: ")

    birth_day = str(birth_day)

    if len(birth_day) == 1:
        birth_day = "0" + birth_day

    birth_month = birth_month[0:3].capitalize()

    birthdate = birth_day + " " + birth_month + " " + birth_year

    birth_dict[dict_place] = {name: birthdate}

    dict_place += 1

    new_date = input(
        "Do you want to enter another birthday?\n\nY for yes       N for no\n\n"
    )
    if new_date.lower() == "y":
        continue
    else:
        break

x = birth_dict.values()

print(x)

I'm new to python and trying to make something that sorts birthdays inputted by a user. I'm trying to turn the values of my dictionary into a list so I can sort it using datetime, but every time I do that it just returns the whole dictionary and not just the values.

I tried using the values function, but it doesn't seem to change anything.

Solution

You're creating a data structure like this:

{
  1: {'Jon': '...'},
  2: {'Jane': '...'},
  ...
}

This makes little sense. The keys 1, 2 etc. you're painstakingly keeping track of with dict_place have no meaning. If you just wanted this, you'd use a list instead, which implicitly keeps track of indices by itself. But beyond that, you don't even want this two-dimensional structure. You just want a simple dict with keys and plain values:

{
  'Jon': '...',
  'Jane': '...',
  ...
}

So change this:

birth_dict[dict_place] = {name: birthdate}

to:

birth_dict[name] = birthdate

And get rid of dict_place, it's superfluous.

Answered By - deceze