How do I hash dicts in Python for beginners?

Hashing dictionaries in Python is useful when you want to create a unique identifier for a dictionary. This can be useful for caching, comparing large datasets, or storing dictionaries as keys in other dictionaries. Here’s a simple way to hash a dictionary using the built-in `hash` function in Python along with JSON serialization.

Example of Hashing a Dictionary

import json def hash_dict(d): # Convert the dictionary to a JSON string, ensuring it is sorted dict_string = json.dumps(d, sort_keys=True) # Return the hash of the string return hash(dict_string) my_dict = {'name': 'Alice', 'age': 30, 'city': 'Wonderland'} hashed_value = hash_dict(my_dict) print(f"The hash value of the dictionary is: {hashed_value}")

keywords: hash dictionary Python serialization JSON