Hi,
I'm trying to use the "copy dictionary" block in order to initialize specific different dictionaries to a master/template dictionary.
When I change the value of a key in one dictionary, the other one is affected as well.
This implies that the copy didn't work, and that the assignment is "by reference" and not "by value"...
OR: Am I missing something?
See mini-example: (The notifier prints both values as "true")
Thanks in advance!
Use a clock component, set time interval for example to 200ms and then when clock timer change values in dictionaries
Thanks for your quick reply.
I've tried your suggestion, but it still changes both dictionaries.
Check_Copy_Dict.aia (3.9 KB)
You are right setting values for key path somehow affects all dictionaries
Changing value like this works
Check_Copy_Dict_1.aia (3.7 KB)
Thanks again for your efforts.
Well, your workaround makes the dictionary usage hard or even impossible in my app.
I have a complex dictionaries structure, with procedures that interact with the user, that result in some changes in the structure's values and also check some values during work.
If there is a bug, who should we inform and how?
Interestingly the documentation says this:
The copy dictionary makes a deep copy of the given dictionary. This means that all of the values are copied recursively and that changing a value in the copy will not change it in the original.
But the tooltip says this:
Returns a shallow copy of the dictionary
Will assign to Evan at MIT
While this is being fixed, maybe write a general deepCopy value procedure that will return a deep copy of its input?
That makes your code simpler, if you replace your copy calls with deepCopy calls.
I can take a whack at it.
(There will be recursion).
P.S. Here it is ...
Deep_Copy_Dict.aia (4.0 KB)
The recursive procedure could possibly be made tighter using the value if/then/else block, but this is good enough for jazz, as my musician wife says.
P.P.S. Added to my list of project samples at
Thanks a lot!
Perhaps you can instead use the list blocks? There the "copy" works correctly. To retrieve an item use then "look up for pairs". If needed there are a few converting blocks in the "dictionary" collection between lists and dictionary.
Here is a version of deepCopy that avoids any potential problems with the list copy block's handling of dictionaries ...
(edit - ABG)P.S. These blocks can be dragged directly into your Blocks Editor workspace.
See A way to group projects by theme
for a demo.
I'll need to think about this. It's correct that as implemented the code only does a shallow copy (via HashMap's clone method). I'd have to go look at the feature branch development and see when we decided to change it from deep copy to shallow copy. I think at least part of the problem was to avoid the issues of having to clone cyclical structures, but I don't recall.
