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author | Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> | 1995-02-15 15:53:08 (GMT) |
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committer | Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> | 1995-02-15 15:53:08 (GMT) |
commit | d1883588aec09fcba1ad512cd889e5837087e318 (patch) | |
tree | e4b4464323558d66f94c4ffb1a0145048f886d1d /Doc/lib/libshelve.tex | |
parent | e1ff7adbf64d50583687e4d51cc12eabb7a01c31 (diff) | |
download | cpython-d1883588aec09fcba1ad512cd889e5837087e318.zip cpython-d1883588aec09fcba1ad512cd889e5837087e318.tar.gz cpython-d1883588aec09fcba1ad512cd889e5837087e318.tar.bz2 |
added docs for pickle, shelve and copy
Diffstat (limited to 'Doc/lib/libshelve.tex')
-rw-r--r-- | Doc/lib/libshelve.tex | 38 |
1 files changed, 38 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/lib/libshelve.tex b/Doc/lib/libshelve.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e2bef9 --- /dev/null +++ b/Doc/lib/libshelve.tex @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +\section{Built-in module \sectcode{shelve}} +\stmodindex{shelve} +\stmodindex{pickle} +\bimodindex{dbm} + +A ``shelf'' is a persistent, dictionary-like object. The difference +with ``dbm'' databases is that the values (not the keys!) in a shelf +can be essentially arbitrary Python objects --- anything that the +\code{pickle} module can handle. This includes most class instances, +recursive data types, and objects containing lots of shared +sub-objects. The keys are ordinary strings. + +To summarize the interface (\code{key} is a string, \code{data} is an +arbitrary object): + +\begin{verbatim} +import shelve + +d = shelve.open(filename) # open, with (g)dbm filename -- no suffix + +d[key] = data # store data at key (overwrites old data if + # using an existing key) +data = d[key] # retrieve data at key (raise KeyError if no + # such key) +del d[key] # delete data stored at key (raises KeyError + # if no such key) +flag = d.has_key(key) # true if the key exists +list = d.keys() # a list of all existing keys (slow!) + +d.close() # close it +\end{verbatim} + +Dependent on the implementation, closing a persistent dictionary may +or may not be necessary to flush changes to disk. + +Note: \code{shelve} does not support {\em concurrent} access to +shelved objects. Two programs should not try to simultaneously access +the same shelf. |