Storing data in python

[Mew151]

What's an efficient way of storing data in python, like a database?

I need to store data for stats in a game, as well as enemy information.

[chunderbunny]

There are a few ways of doing it, depending on comfortable you are with programming.

The simplest would be to use a python dictionary, which stores data as key-data pairs. An empty dictionary is initialised with curly braces:

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D = {}

And then you assign data to the dictionary thus:

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D['Name'] = 'James'
D['Age'] = 35
D['Health'] = 100

A good way of tracking stats for a game would be to store the character's name as the key in a dictionary, and then store a dictionary of the various stats as the data. (Basically we are storing a bunch of dictionaries inside a master dictionary)

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Stats = {}

James = {}
James['Health'] = 78
James['Money'] = 12

Mark = {}
Mark['Health'] = 21
Mark['Money'] = 156

Stats['James'] = James 
Stats['Mark'] = Mark

Then when you want to get the data back again:

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Stats['Mark']['Health']
>>> 21

A more powerful way of doing this would be to use classes and object oriented programming techniques, but this is more complicated and probably not worth it if you just want to store some data in a sensible way.

[Mew151]

Thank you!

I'll be using this method for data storage!

[Mew151]

Actually, I'm familiar with OOP.

I'd actually like to know how to store data with Class objects.

[killdream]

I'd actually like to know how to store data with Class objects.

Eto... just create a class? o.o

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class human:
    # the object constructor
    def __init__(self, age, sex, weight, height):
        self.age        = age
        self.sex        = sex
        self.weight     = weight
        self.height     = height

Then you instantiate this class whenever you need it. And access the fields defined in it.

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james = human(31,       #age
              "male",   #sex
              67,       #weight (in kg)
              170,      #height (in cm)
              )

Or you could inherit MaleHuman and FemaleHuman from the base human class.

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class MaleHuman(human):
    def __init__(self, age, weight, height):
        human.__init__(self, age, "male", weight, height) # inherits from base class

If you need persistent data, you can use CVS files, or write a file format of your own using xdrlib/another module or getting the pain of writing/reading it directly using binary data. Or you can even use some DBGS system like MySQL and the likes (which I don't recommend, anyways, unless you're making a MMO game).

[chunderbunny]

If you need persistent data, you can use CVS files, or write a file format of your own using xdrlib/another module or getting the pain of writing/reading it directly using binary data. Or you can even use some DBGS system like MySQL and the likes (which I don't recommend, anyways, unless you're making a MMO game).

I think most people persist data in python using pickle, cpickle (basically just a faster pickle) or shelve. Renpy probably has its own recommended way of storing things though.