Brandon Rhodes: The Mighty Dictionary (PyCon 2010)

Now more than half a decade old, but probably still the most popular of all my talks! I explain how the Python dictionary is implemented behind the scenes as a “hash table” that optimistically converts keys into integer array indexes and then has a back-up plan for the inevitable collisions between keys that then result. The talk features large, bright diagrams depicting how the hash table is initialized and constructed - diagrams that were build by a Python program I wrote that peeks inside the dictionary and draws what it sees in the raw data structure!

[@YuyinSports]

Wow so clearly explained, thanks for this, found it very insightful. Found your video from a link mentioned in the beyond the basics by Al Sweigart.

[@marcosmodenesi4993]

Amazing talk, thanks for uploading!

[@Jaime.02]

But dicts have changed a lot, right?

[@YuyinSports]

There is a follow up presentation from 2017 titled, Brandon Rhodes The Dictionary Even Mightier PyCon 2017