python - TypeError: unhashable type: 'dict'

Question

This piece of code is giving me an error unhashable type: dict can anyone explain to me what the solution is?

negids = movie_reviews.fileids('neg')
def word_feats(words):
    return dict([(word, True) for word in words])

negfeats = [(word_feats(movie_reviews.words(fileids=[f])), 'neg') for f in negids]
stopset = set(stopwords.words('english'))

def stopword_filtered_word_feats(words):
    return dict([(word, True) for word in words if word not in stopset])

result=stopword_filtered_word_feats(negfeats)

Answer 1

You're trying to use a dict as a key to another dict or in a set. That does not work because the keys have to be hashable. As a general rule, only immutable objects (strings, integers, floats, frozensets, tuples of immutables) are hashable (though exceptions are possible). So this does not work:

>>> dict_key = {"a": "b"}
>>> some_dict[dict_key] = True
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: unhashable type: 'dict'

To use a dict as a key you need to turn it into something that may be hashed first. If the dict you wish to use as key consists of only immutable values, you can create a hashable representation of it like this:

>>> key = frozenset(dict_key.items())

Now you may use key as a key in a dict or set:

>>> some_dict[key] = True
>>> some_dict
{frozenset([('a', 'b')]): True}

Of course you need to repeat the exercise whenever you want to look up something using a dict:

>>> some_dict[dict_key]                     # Doesn't work
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: unhashable type: 'dict'
>>> some_dict[frozenset(dict_key.items())]  # Works
True

If the dict you wish to use as key has values that are themselves dicts and/or lists, you need to recursively "freeze" the prospective key. Here's a starting point:

def freeze(d):
    if isinstance(d, dict):
        return frozenset((key, freeze(value)) for key, value in d.items())
    elif isinstance(d, list):
        return tuple(freeze(value) for value in d)
    return d