A dict literal is created by surrounding a key-value list with {}'s; a keys is separated from its value with :'s, and the key : value pairs are separated with commas (,). An empty dict is simply {}. As with lists and tuples, an extra , inside the {}'s is tolerated.

Examples:

diceRoll = { (1,1): "snake eyes", (6,6): "box cars" }
myBoat = { "NAME":"KaDiMa", "LOA":18, 
 "SAILS":["main","jib","spinnaker"] }
theBets = { }

The diceRoll variable is a dict with two elements. One element has a key of a tuple (1,1) and a value of a string, "snake eyes". The other element has a key of a tuple (6,6) and a value of a string "box cars".

The myBoat variable is a dict with three elements. One element has a key of the string "NAME" and a value of the string "KaDiMa". Another element has a key of the string "LOA" and a value of the integer 18. The third element has a key of the string "SAILS" and the value of a list ["main", "jib", "spinnaker"].

The theBets is an empty dict.

The values and keys in a dict do not have to be the same type. Keys must be a type that can produce a hash value. Since lists and dict objects are mutable, they are not permitted as keys. All other non-mutable types (especially strings, frozensets and tuples) are legal keys.