partial match dictionary key(of tuples) in python

Question

I have a dictionary that maps 3tuple to 3tuple where key-tuples have some element in common

dict= { (a,b,c):(1,2,3),
        (a,b,d):tuple1,
        (a,e,b):         


        

Answer 1

There might be other ways, but assuming you just need to do a single search (in other words there might be ways to build better data structures for repeated searching): (Note that this handles arbitrary lengthed tuple's with the '*' in multiple possible locations)

def match(tup,target):
   if len(tup) != len(target):
      return False
   for i in xrange(len(tup)):
      if target[i] != "*" and tup[i] != target[i]:
         return False
   return True

def get_tuples(mydict,target):
   keys = filter(lambda x: match(x,target),mydict.keys())
   return [mydict[key] for key in keys]

#example:
dict= { (1,3,5):(1,2,3),
        (1,3,6):(1,5,7),
        (1,2,5):(1,4,5),
       }
print get_tuples(dict,(1,3,'*'))

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