Dictionary

Dictionary type.

Description

Dictionary type. Associative container which contains values referenced by unique keys. Dictionaries are composed of pairs of keys (which must be unique) and values. Dictionaries will preserve the insertion order when adding elements, even though this may not be reflected when printing the dictionary. In other programming languages, this data structure is sometimes referred to as an hash map or associative array.

You can define a dictionary by placing a comma-separated list of key: value pairs in curly braces {}.

Erasing elements while iterating over them is not supported and will result in undefined behavior.

Creating a dictionary:

var my_dir = {} # Creates an empty dictionary.
var points_dir = {"White": 50, "Yellow": 75, "Orange": 100}
var another_dir = {
    key1: value1,
    key2: value2,
    key3: value3,
}

You can access a dictionary’s values by referencing the appropriate key. In the above example, points_dir["White"] will return 50. You can also write points_dir.White, which is equivalent. However, you’ll have to use the bracket syntax if the key you’re accessing the dictionary with isn’t a fixed string (such as a number or variable).

export(String, "White", "Yellow", "Orange") var my_color
var points_dir = {"White": 50, "Yellow": 75, "Orange": 100}

func _ready():
    # We can't use dot syntax here as `my_color` is a variable.
    var points = points_dir[my_color]

In the above code, points will be assigned the value that is paired with the appropriate color selected in my_color.

Dictionaries can contain more complex data:

my_dir = {"First Array": [1, 2, 3, 4]} # Assigns an Array to a String key.

To add a key to an existing dictionary, access it like an existing key and assign to it:

var points_dir = {"White": 50, "Yellow": 75, "Orange": 100}
points_dir["Blue"] = 150 # Add "Blue" as a key and assign 150 as its value.

Finally, dictionaries can contain different types of keys and values in the same dictionary:

# This is a valid dictionary.
# To access the string "Nested value" below, use `my_dir.sub_dir.sub_key` or `my_dir["sub_dir"]["sub_key"]`.
# Indexing styles can be mixed and matched depending on your needs.
var my_dir = {
    "String Key": 5,
    4: [1, 2, 3],
    7: "Hello",
    "sub_dir": {"sub_key": "Nested value"},
}

Note: Unlike Arrays, you can’t compare dictionaries directly:

array1 = [1, 2, 3]
array2 = [1, 2, 3]

func compare_arrays():
    print(array1 == array2) # Will print true.

dir1 = {"a": 1, "b": 2, "c": 3}
dir2 = {"a": 1, "b": 2, "c": 3}

func compare_dictionaries():
    print(dir1 == dir2) # Will NOT print true.

You need to first calculate the dictionary’s hash with hash before you can compare them:

dir1 = {"a": 1, "b": 2, "c": 3}
dir2 = {"a": 1, "b": 2, "c": 3}

func compare_dictionaries():
    print(dir1.hash() == dir2.hash()) # Will print true.

Methods

void clear ( )
Dictionary duplicate ( bool deep=false )
bool empty ( )
bool erase ( Variant key )
Variant get ( Variant key, Variant default=null )
bool has ( Variant key )
bool has_all ( Array keys )
int hash ( )
Array keys ( )
int size ( )
Array values ( )

Method Descriptions

  • void clear ( )

Clear the dictionary, removing all key/value pairs.

Creates a copy of the dictionary, and returns it. The deep parameter causes inner dictionaries and arrays to be copied recursively, but does not apply to objects.

Returns true if the dictionary is empty.

Erase a dictionary key/value pair by key. Returns true if the given key was present in the dictionary, false otherwise. Does not erase elements while iterating over the dictionary.

Returns the current value for the specified key in the Dictionary. If the key does not exist, the method returns the value of the optional default argument, or null if it is omitted.

Returns true if the dictionary has a given key.

Returns true if the dictionary has all of the keys in the given array.

Returns a hashed integer value representing the dictionary contents. This can be used to compare dictionaries by value:

var dict1 = {0: 10}
var dict2 = {0: 10}
# The line below prints `true`, whereas it would have printed `false` if both variables were compared directly.
print(dict1.hash() == dict2.hash())

Returns the list of keys in the Dictionary.

Returns the size of the dictionary (in pairs).

Returns the list of values in the Dictionary.