Dictionaries¶

Dictionaries map C-string keys to arbitrary var values, backed by a hash table with chaining.

#include "abscom/abs.h"

Operations¶

Function	Description
`var Dict()`	An empty dict.
`void dset(var dict, const char *key, var val)`	Insert `key -> val`.
`var dget(var dict, const char *key)`	Look up `key`; returns `None` if missing, an error if `dict` is not a dict.
`var len(var dict)`	Number of keys.

Keys are plain C strings (const char *), copied on insert. Duplicate keys overwrite the previous value.

Example¶

abs_init();

var d = Dict();
dset(d, "name", abs_new_str("Ada"));
dset(d, "age",  v(36));

print(dget(d, "name"));   /* Ada */
print(dget(d, "age"));    /* 36  */
print(len(d));            /* 2   */

Missing keys¶

dget on a missing key returns None, not an error:

var d = Dict();
dset(d, "a", v(1));
dget(d, "b");             /* None */

Wrong types¶

dget on a non-dict returns an ABS_ERROR value; dset on a non-dict is a silent no-op.

Strings as keys¶

Since keys are C strings, pass literals directly — no abs_new_str needed for the key:

dset(d, "score", v(42));

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