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    <copyright>
      <year>1996</year><year>2011</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
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      The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
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    <title>dict</title>
    <prepared>Robert Virding</prepared>
    <docno></docno>
    <date>1997-01-15</date>
    <rev>B</rev>
  </header>
  <module>dict</module>
  <modulesummary>Key-Value Dictionary</modulesummary>
  <description>
    <p><c>Dict</c> implements a <c>Key</c> - <c>Value</c> dictionary.
      The representation of a dictionary is not defined.</p>
    <p>This module provides exactly the same interface as the module
      <c>orddict</c>. One difference is that while this module
      considers two keys as different if they do not match (<c>=:=</c>),
      <c>orddict</c> considers two keys as different if and only if
      they do not compare equal (<c>==</c>).</p>
  </description>

  <datatypes>
    <datatype>
      <name><marker id="type-dict">dict()</marker></name>
      <desc><p>Dictionary as returned by <c>new/0</c>.</p></desc>
    </datatype>
  </datatypes>
  <funcs>
    <func>
      <name name="append" arity="3"/>
      <fsummary>Append a value to keys in a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>This function appends a new <c><anno>Value</anno></c> to the current list
          of values associated with <c><anno>Key</anno></c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="append_list" arity="3"/>
      <fsummary>Append new values to keys in a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>This function appends a list of values <c><anno>ValList</anno></c> to
          the current list of values associated with <c><anno>Key</anno></c>. An
          exception is generated if the initial value associated with
          <c><anno>Key</anno></c> is not a list of values.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="erase" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Erase a key from a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>This function erases all items with a given key from a
          dictionary.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="fetch" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Look-up values in a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>This function returns the value associated with <c><anno>Key</anno></c>
          in the dictionary <c><anno>Dict</anno></c>. <c>fetch</c> assumes that
          the <c><anno>Key</anno></c> is present in the dictionary and an exception
          is generated if <c><anno>Key</anno></c> is not in the dictionary.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="fetch_keys" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Return all keys in a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>This function returns a list of all keys in the dictionary.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="filter" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Choose elements which satisfy a predicate</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p><c><anno>Dict2</anno></c> is a dictionary of all keys and values in
          <c><anno>Dict1</anno></c> for which <c><anno>Pred</anno>(<anno>Key</anno>, <anno>Value</anno>)</c> is <c>true</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="find" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Search for a key in a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>This function searches for a key in a dictionary. Returns
          <c>{ok, <anno>Value</anno>}</c> where <c><anno>Value</anno></c> is the value associated
          with <c><anno>Key</anno></c>, or <c>error</c> if the key is not present in
          the dictionary.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="fold" arity="3"/>
      <fsummary>Fold a function over a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Calls <c><anno>Fun</anno></c> on successive keys and values of
          <c><anno>Dict</anno></c> together with an extra argument <c>Acc</c>
          (short for accumulator). <c><anno>Fun</anno></c> must return a new
          accumulator which is passed to the next call. <c><anno>Acc0</anno></c> is
          returned if the list is empty. The evaluation order is
          undefined.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="from_list" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Convert a list of pairs to a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>This function converts the <c><anno>Key</anno></c> - <c><anno>Value</anno></c> list
          <c><anno>List</anno></c> to a dictionary.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="is_key" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Test if a key is in a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>This function tests if <c><anno>Key</anno></c> is contained in
          the dictionary <c><anno>Dict</anno></c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="map" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Map a function over a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p><c>map</c> calls <c><anno>Fun</anno></c> on successive keys and values
          of <c><anno>Dict1</anno></c> to return a new value for each key.
          The evaluation order is undefined.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="merge" arity="3"/>
      <fsummary>Merge two dictionaries</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p><c>merge</c> merges two dictionaries, <c><anno>Dict1</anno></c> and
          <c><anno>Dict2</anno></c>, to create a new dictionary.  All the <c><anno>Key</anno></c>
          - <c><anno>Value</anno></c> pairs from both dictionaries are included in
          the new dictionary.  If a key occurs in both dictionaries then
          <c><anno>Fun</anno></c> is called with the key and both values to return a
          new value. <c>merge</c> could be defined as:</p>
        <code type="none">
merge(Fun, D1, D2) ->
    fold(fun (K, V1, D) ->
                 update(K, fun (V2) -> Fun(K, V1, V2) end, V1, D)
         end, D2, D1).</code>
        <p>but is faster.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="new" arity="0"/>
      <fsummary>Create a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>This function creates a new dictionary.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="size" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Return the number of elements in a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the number of elements in a <c><anno>Dict</anno></c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="store" arity="3"/>
      <fsummary>Store a value in a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>This function stores a <c><anno>Key</anno></c> - <c><anno>Value</anno></c> pair in a
          dictionary. If the <c><anno>Key</anno></c> already exists in <c><anno>Dict1</anno></c>,
          the associated value is replaced by <c><anno>Value</anno></c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="to_list" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Convert a dictionary to a list of pairs</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>This function converts the dictionary to a list
          representation.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="update" arity="3"/>
      <fsummary>Update a value in a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Update a value in a dictionary by calling <c><anno>Fun</anno></c> on
          the value to get a new value.  An exception is generated if
          <c><anno>Key</anno></c> is not present in the dictionary.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="update" arity="4"/>
      <fsummary>Update a value in a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Update a value in a dictionary by calling <c><anno>Fun</anno></c> on
          the value to get a new value.  If <c><anno>Key</anno></c> is not present
          in the dictionary then <c><anno>Initial</anno></c> will be stored as
          the first value. For example <c>append/3</c> could be defined
          as:</p>
        <code type="none">
append(Key, Val, D) ->
    update(Key, fun (Old) -> Old ++ [Val] end, [Val], D).</code>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="update_counter" arity="3"/>
      <fsummary>Increment a value in a dictionary</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Add <c><anno>Increment</anno></c> to the value associated with <c><anno>Key</anno></c>
          and store this value.  If <c><anno>Key</anno></c> is not present in
          the dictionary then <c><anno>Increment</anno></c> will be stored as
          the first value.</p>
        <p>This could be defined as:</p>
        <code type="none">
update_counter(Key, Incr, D) ->
    update(Key, fun (Old) -> Old + Incr end, Incr, D).</code>
        <p>but is faster.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
  </funcs>

  <section>
    <title>Notes</title>
    <p>The functions <c>append</c> and <c>append_list</c> are included
      so we can store keyed values in a list <em>accumulator</em>. For
      example:</p>
    <pre>
> D0 = dict:new(),
  D1 = dict:store(files, [], D0),
  D2 = dict:append(files, f1, D1),
  D3 = dict:append(files, f2, D2),
  D4 = dict:append(files, f3, D3),
  dict:fetch(files, D4).
[f1,f2,f3]    </pre>
    <p>This saves the trouble of first fetching a keyed value,
      appending a new value to the list of stored values, and storing
      the result.
      </p>
    <p>The function <c>fetch</c> should be used if the key is known to
      be in the dictionary, otherwise <c>find</c>.</p>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>See Also</title>
    <p><seealso marker="gb_trees">gb_trees(3)</seealso>, 
      <seealso marker="orddict">orddict(3)</seealso></p>
  </section>
</erlref>

