A Case for Zip

 I found this Python code in our project:

data = {...}

devices = get_devices()

if len(devices) > 0:

    data["first_device"] = devices[0]

if len(devices) > 1:

    data["second_device"] = devices[1]

if len(devices) > 2:

    data["third_device"] = devices[2]

if len(devices) > 3:

    data["fourth_device"] = devices[3]

if len(devices) > 4:

    data["fifth_device"] = devices[4]

It retrieves a bunch of devices, and adds them to an existing dict. I removed this code and replaced it with this one:

data = {...}

devices = get_devices()

labels = ["first_device", "second_device", "third_device", "fourth_device", "fifth_device"]

data.update(dict(zip(labels, devices)))

It takes advantage of two characteristics of the zipped list:

1. It iterates up to the length of the shortest list.
2. Two zipped lists can easily be turned into a dict.