Python: "as" keyword for shorthand

Question

Simple question: is it possible to assign shorthand references when iterating in Python, like this (which doesn't work):

class SomeClass:
    class_dict = {0:0,1:1,2:2,3:3}

newClass = SomeClass()

for n in newClass.class_dict as thedict: # assigning a shorthand reference "thedict" to newClass.class_dict
    print(thedict[n])

Answer 1

I think you want this (iterate the key/value pair as n, o using iteritems()):

class SomeClass:
    class_dict = {0:0,1:1,2:2,3:3}

newClass = SomeClass()

for n, o in newClass.class_dict.iteritems():
    print(o)

Answer 2

Also, if you wanted to pursue the original idea, you can simply assign the class_dict to a new name. Any changes made to either dictionary affect both as they are really the same dictionary in memory because of aliasing.

Eg.

class SomeClass:
class_dict = {0:0,1:1,2:2,3:3}

newClass = SomeClass()

thedict = newClass.class_dict

for n in thedict:
    thedict[n] = thedict[n] + 1
    print(thedict[n])

print(newClass.class_dict)

will output

1
2
3
4
{0: 1, 1: 2, 2: 3, 3: 4}