Edit File: dbm.html
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>11.8. dbm — Simple “database” interface — Python 2.7.5 documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/default.css" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript"> var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = { URL_ROOT: '../', VERSION: '2.7.5', COLLAPSE_INDEX: false, FILE_SUFFIX: '.html', HAS_SOURCE: true }; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/underscore.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/sidebar.js"></script> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search within Python 2.7.5 documentation" href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/> <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" /> <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" /> <link rel="top" title="Python 2.7.5 documentation" href="../index.html" /> <link rel="up" title="11. 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Data Persistence</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body"> <div class="section" id="module-dbm"> <span id="dbm-simple-database-interface"></span><h1>11.8. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-dbm" title="dbm: The standard "database" interface, based on ndbm. (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">dbm</span></tt></a> — Simple “database” interface<a class="headerlink" href="#module-dbm" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <div class="admonition note"> <p class="first admonition-title">Note</p> <p class="last">The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-dbm" title="dbm: The standard "database" interface, based on ndbm. (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">dbm</span></tt></a> module has been renamed to <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">dbm.ndbm</span></tt> in Python 3. The <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-to3"><em class="xref std std-term">2to3</em></a> tool will automatically adapt imports when converting your sources to Python 3.</p> </div> <p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-dbm" title="dbm: The standard "database" interface, based on ndbm. (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">dbm</span></tt></a> module provides an interface to the Unix “(n)dbm” library. Dbm objects behave like mappings (dictionaries), except that keys and values are always strings. Printing a dbm object doesn’t print the keys and values, and the <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">items()</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">values()</span></tt> methods are not supported.</p> <p>This module can be used with the “classic” ndbm interface, the BSD DB compatibility interface, or the GNU GDBM compatibility interface. On Unix, the <strong class="program">configure</strong> script will attempt to locate the appropriate header file to simplify building this module.</p> <p>The module defines the following:</p> <dl class="exception"> <dt id="dbm.error"> <em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">dbm.</tt><tt class="descname">error</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#dbm.error" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Raised on dbm-specific errors, such as I/O errors. <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.KeyError" title="exceptions.KeyError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">KeyError</span></tt></a> is raised for general mapping errors like specifying an incorrect key.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="data"> <dt id="dbm.library"> <tt class="descclassname">dbm.</tt><tt class="descname">library</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#dbm.library" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Name of the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ndbm</span></tt> implementation library used.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="function"> <dt id="dbm.open"> <tt class="descclassname">dbm.</tt><tt class="descname">open</tt><big>(</big><em>filename</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>flag</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>mode</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#dbm.open" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Open a dbm database and return a dbm object. The <em>filename</em> argument is the name of the database file (without the <tt class="file docutils literal"><span class="pre">.dir</span></tt> or <tt class="file docutils literal"><span class="pre">.pag</span></tt> extensions; note that the BSD DB implementation of the interface will append the extension <tt class="file docutils literal"><span class="pre">.db</span></tt> and only create one file).</p> <p>The optional <em>flag</em> argument must be one of these values:</p> <table border="1" class="docutils"> <colgroup> <col width="17%" /> <col width="83%" /> </colgroup> <thead valign="bottom"> <tr class="row-odd"><th class="head">Value</th> <th class="head">Meaning</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody valign="top"> <tr class="row-even"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'r'</span></tt></td> <td>Open existing database for reading only (default)</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'w'</span></tt></td> <td>Open existing database for reading and writing</td> </tr> <tr class="row-even"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'c'</span></tt></td> <td>Open database for reading and writing, creating it if it doesn’t exist</td> </tr> <tr class="row-odd"><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'n'</span></tt></td> <td>Always create a new, empty database, open for reading and writing</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>The optional <em>mode</em> argument is the Unix mode of the file, used only when the database has to be created. It defaults to octal <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">0666</span></tt> (and will be modified by the prevailing umask).</p> </dd></dl> <div class="admonition-see-also admonition seealso"> <p class="first admonition-title">See also</p> <dl class="last docutils"> <dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="anydbm.html#module-anydbm" title="anydbm: Generic interface to DBM-style database modules."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">anydbm</span></tt></a></dt> <dd>Generic interface to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">dbm</span></tt>-style databases.</dd> <dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="gdbm.html#module-gdbm" title="gdbm: GNU's reinterpretation of dbm. (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">gdbm</span></tt></a></dt> <dd>Similar interface to the GNU GDBM library.</dd> <dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="whichdb.html#module-whichdb" title="whichdb: Guess which DBM-style module created a given database."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">whichdb</span></tt></a></dt> <dd>Utility module used to determine the type of an existing database.</dd> </dl> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="whichdb.html" title="previous chapter">11.7. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">whichdb</span></tt> — Guess which DBM module created a database</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="gdbm.html" title="next chapter">11.9. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">gdbm</span></tt> — GNU’s reinterpretation of dbm</a></p> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="../bugs.html">Report a Bug</a></li> <li><a href="../_sources/library/dbm.txt" rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li> </ul> <div id="searchbox" style="display: none"> <h3>Quick search</h3> <form class="search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input type="text" name="q" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> <p class="searchtip" style="font-size: 90%"> Enter search terms or a module, class or function name. </p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="gdbm.html" title="11.9. gdbm — GNU’s reinterpretation of dbm" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="whichdb.html" title="11.7. whichdb — Guess which DBM module created a database" >previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a> »</li> <li> <a href="../index.html">Python 2.7.5 documentation</a> » </li> <li><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li><a href="persistence.html" >11. 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