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  <section id="module-shelve">
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<span id="shelve-python-object-persistence"></span><h1><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shelve</span></code> — Python object persistence<a class="headerlink" href="#module-shelve" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h1>
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<p><strong>Source code:</strong> <a class="extlink-source reference external" href="https://github.com/python/cpython/tree/3.13/Lib/shelve.py">Lib/shelve.py</a></p>
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<hr class="docutils" id="index-0" />
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<p>A “shelf” is a persistent, dictionary-like object.  The difference with “dbm”
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databases is that the values (not the keys!) in a shelf can be essentially
 | 
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arbitrary Python objects — anything that the <a class="reference internal" href="pickle.html#module-pickle" title="pickle: Convert Python objects to streams of bytes and back."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pickle</span></code></a> module can handle.
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This includes most class instances, recursive data types, and objects containing
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lots of shared  sub-objects.  The keys are ordinary strings.</p>
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<dl class="py function">
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<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shelve.open">
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<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shelve.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">open</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">filename</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">flag</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">'c'</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">protocol</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">None</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">writeback</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">False</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shelve.open" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
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<dd><p>Open a persistent dictionary.  The filename specified is the base filename for
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the underlying database.  As a side-effect, an extension may be added to the
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filename and more than one file may be created.  By default, the underlying
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database file is opened for reading and writing.  The optional <em>flag</em> parameter
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has the same interpretation as the <em>flag</em> parameter of <a class="reference internal" href="dbm.html#dbm.open" title="dbm.open"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dbm.open()</span></code></a>.</p>
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<p>By default, pickles created with <a class="reference internal" href="pickle.html#pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL" title="pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL</span></code></a> are used
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to serialize values.  The version of the pickle protocol can be specified
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with the <em>protocol</em> parameter.</p>
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<p>Because of Python semantics, a shelf cannot know when a mutable
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persistent-dictionary entry is modified.  By default modified objects are
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written <em>only</em> when assigned to the shelf (see <a class="reference internal" href="#shelve-example"><span class="std std-ref">Example</span></a>).  If the
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optional <em>writeback</em> parameter is set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code>, all entries accessed are also
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cached in memory, and written back on <a class="reference internal" href="#shelve.Shelf.sync" title="shelve.Shelf.sync"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sync()</span></code></a> and
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<a class="reference internal" href="#shelve.Shelf.close" title="shelve.Shelf.close"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">close()</span></code></a>; this can make it handier to mutate mutable entries in
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the persistent dictionary, but, if many entries are accessed, it can consume
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vast amounts of memory for the cache, and it can make the close operation
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very slow since all accessed entries are written back (there is no way to
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determine which accessed entries are mutable, nor which ones were actually
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mutated).</p>
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<div class="versionchanged">
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<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.10: </span><a class="reference internal" href="pickle.html#pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL" title="pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL</span></code></a> is now used as the default pickle
 | 
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protocol.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="versionchanged">
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<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.11: </span>Accepts <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-path-like-object"><span class="xref std std-term">path-like object</span></a> for filename.</p>
 | 
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</div>
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<div class="admonition note">
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<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
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<p>Do not rely on the shelf being closed automatically; always call
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="#shelve.Shelf.close" title="shelve.Shelf.close"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">close()</span></code></a> explicitly when you don’t need it any more, or
 | 
						||
use <a class="reference internal" href="#shelve.open" title="shelve.open"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shelve.open()</span></code></a> as a context manager:</p>
 | 
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<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">shelve</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'spam'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">db</span><span class="p">:</span>
 | 
						||
    <span class="n">db</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'eggs'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'eggs'</span>
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						||
</pre></div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</dd></dl>
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<div class="admonition warning" id="shelve-security">
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<p class="admonition-title">Warning</p>
 | 
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<p>Because the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-shelve" title="shelve: Python object persistence."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shelve</span></code></a> module is backed by <a class="reference internal" href="pickle.html#module-pickle" title="pickle: Convert Python objects to streams of bytes and back."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pickle</span></code></a>, it is insecure
 | 
						||
to load a shelf from an untrusted source.  Like with pickle, loading a shelf
 | 
						||
can execute arbitrary code.</p>
 | 
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</div>
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<p>Shelf objects support most of methods and operations supported by dictionaries
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						||
(except copying, constructors and operators <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">|</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">|=</span></code>).  This eases the
 | 
						||
transition from dictionary based scripts to those requiring persistent storage.</p>
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<p>Two additional methods are supported:</p>
 | 
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<dl class="py method">
 | 
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<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shelve.Shelf.sync">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">Shelf.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">sync</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shelve.Shelf.sync" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Write back all entries in the cache if the shelf was opened with <em>writeback</em>
 | 
						||
set to <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code></a>.  Also empty the cache and synchronize the persistent
 | 
						||
dictionary on disk, if feasible.  This is called automatically when the shelf
 | 
						||
is closed with <a class="reference internal" href="#shelve.Shelf.close" title="shelve.Shelf.close"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">close()</span></code></a>.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
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 | 
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<dl class="py method">
 | 
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<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shelve.Shelf.close">
 | 
						||
<span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">Shelf.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">close</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shelve.Shelf.close" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>Synchronize and close the persistent <em>dict</em> object.  Operations on a closed
 | 
						||
shelf will fail with a <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#ValueError" title="ValueError"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></code></a>.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<div class="admonition seealso">
 | 
						||
<p class="admonition-title">See also</p>
 | 
						||
<p><a class="reference external" href="https://code.activestate.com/recipes/576642-persistent-dict-with-multiple-standard-file-format/">Persistent dictionary recipe</a>
 | 
						||
with widely supported storage formats and having the speed of native
 | 
						||
dictionaries.</p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<section id="restrictions">
 | 
						||
<h2>Restrictions<a class="headerlink" href="#restrictions" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
 | 
						||
<ul class="simple" id="index-1">
 | 
						||
<li><p>The choice of which database package will be used (such as <a class="reference internal" href="dbm.html#module-dbm.ndbm" title="dbm.ndbm: The New Database Manager (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dbm.ndbm</span></code></a> or
 | 
						||
<a class="reference internal" href="dbm.html#module-dbm.gnu" title="dbm.gnu: GNU database manager (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dbm.gnu</span></code></a>) depends on which interface is available.  Therefore it is not
 | 
						||
safe to open the database directly using <a class="reference internal" href="dbm.html#module-dbm" title="dbm: Interfaces to various Unix "database" formats."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dbm</span></code></a>.  The database is also
 | 
						||
(unfortunately) subject to the limitations of <a class="reference internal" href="dbm.html#module-dbm" title="dbm: Interfaces to various Unix "database" formats."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dbm</span></code></a>, if it is used —
 | 
						||
this means that (the pickled representation of) the objects stored in the
 | 
						||
database should be fairly small, and in rare cases key collisions may cause
 | 
						||
the database to refuse updates.</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-shelve" title="shelve: Python object persistence."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shelve</span></code></a> module does not support <em>concurrent</em> read/write access to
 | 
						||
shelved objects.  (Multiple simultaneous read accesses are safe.)  When a
 | 
						||
program has a shelf open for writing, no other program should have it open for
 | 
						||
reading or writing.  Unix file locking can be used to solve this, but this
 | 
						||
differs across Unix versions and requires knowledge about the database
 | 
						||
implementation used.</p></li>
 | 
						||
<li><p>On macOS <a class="reference internal" href="dbm.html#module-dbm.ndbm" title="dbm.ndbm: The New Database Manager (Unix)"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dbm.ndbm</span></code></a> can silently corrupt the database file on updates,
 | 
						||
which can cause hard crashes when trying to read from the database.</p></li>
 | 
						||
</ul>
 | 
						||
<dl class="py class">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shelve.Shelf">
 | 
						||
<em class="property"><span class="k"><span class="pre">class</span></span><span class="w"> </span></em><span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shelve.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">Shelf</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">dict</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">protocol</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">None</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">writeback</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">False</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">keyencoding</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">'utf-8'</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shelve.Shelf" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>A subclass of <a class="reference internal" href="collections.abc.html#collections.abc.MutableMapping" title="collections.abc.MutableMapping"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">collections.abc.MutableMapping</span></code></a> which stores pickled
 | 
						||
values in the <em>dict</em> object.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>By default, pickles created with <a class="reference internal" href="pickle.html#pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL" title="pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL</span></code></a> are used
 | 
						||
to serialize values.  The version of the pickle protocol can be specified
 | 
						||
with the <em>protocol</em> parameter.  See the <a class="reference internal" href="pickle.html#module-pickle" title="pickle: Convert Python objects to streams of bytes and back."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pickle</span></code></a> documentation for a
 | 
						||
discussion of the pickle protocols.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>If the <em>writeback</em> parameter is <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code>, the object will hold a cache of all
 | 
						||
entries accessed and write them back to the <em>dict</em> at sync and close times.
 | 
						||
This allows natural operations on mutable entries, but can consume much more
 | 
						||
memory and make sync and close take a long time.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>The <em>keyencoding</em> parameter is the encoding used to encode keys before they
 | 
						||
are used with the underlying dict.</p>
 | 
						||
<p>A <a class="reference internal" href="#shelve.Shelf" title="shelve.Shelf"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Shelf</span></code></a> object can also be used as a context manager, in which
 | 
						||
case it will be automatically closed when the <a class="reference internal" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#with"><code class="xref std std-keyword docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">with</span></code></a> block ends.</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="versionchanged">
 | 
						||
<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.2: </span>Added the <em>keyencoding</em> parameter; previously, keys were always encoded in
 | 
						||
UTF-8.</p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<div class="versionchanged">
 | 
						||
<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.4: </span>Added context manager support.</p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<div class="versionchanged">
 | 
						||
<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.10: </span><a class="reference internal" href="pickle.html#pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL" title="pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL"><code class="xref py py-const docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL</span></code></a> is now used as the default pickle
 | 
						||
protocol.</p>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py class">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shelve.BsdDbShelf">
 | 
						||
<em class="property"><span class="k"><span class="pre">class</span></span><span class="w"> </span></em><span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shelve.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">BsdDbShelf</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">dict</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">protocol</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">None</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">writeback</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">False</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">keyencoding</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">'utf-8'</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shelve.BsdDbShelf" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>A subclass of <a class="reference internal" href="#shelve.Shelf" title="shelve.Shelf"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Shelf</span></code></a> which exposes <code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">first()</span></code>, <code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">next()</span></code>,
 | 
						||
<code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">previous()</span></code>, <code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">last()</span></code> and <code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_location()</span></code> methods.
 | 
						||
These are available
 | 
						||
in the third-party <code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">bsddb</span></code> module from <a class="reference external" href="https://www.jcea.es/programacion/pybsddb.htm">pybsddb</a> but not in other database
 | 
						||
modules.  The <em>dict</em> object passed to the constructor must support those
 | 
						||
methods.  This is generally accomplished by calling one of
 | 
						||
<code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">bsddb.hashopen()</span></code>, <code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">bsddb.btopen()</span></code> or <code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">bsddb.rnopen()</span></code>.  The
 | 
						||
optional <em>protocol</em>, <em>writeback</em>, and <em>keyencoding</em> parameters have the same
 | 
						||
interpretation as for the <a class="reference internal" href="#shelve.Shelf" title="shelve.Shelf"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Shelf</span></code></a> class.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<dl class="py class">
 | 
						||
<dt class="sig sig-object py" id="shelve.DbfilenameShelf">
 | 
						||
<em class="property"><span class="k"><span class="pre">class</span></span><span class="w"> </span></em><span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">shelve.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">DbfilenameShelf</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">filename</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">flag</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">'c'</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">protocol</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">None</span></span></em>, <em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">writeback</span></span><span class="o"><span class="pre">=</span></span><span class="default_value"><span class="pre">False</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#shelve.DbfilenameShelf" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt>
 | 
						||
<dd><p>A subclass of <a class="reference internal" href="#shelve.Shelf" title="shelve.Shelf"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Shelf</span></code></a> which accepts a <em>filename</em> instead of a dict-like
 | 
						||
object.  The underlying file will be opened using <a class="reference internal" href="dbm.html#dbm.open" title="dbm.open"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dbm.open()</span></code></a>.  By
 | 
						||
default, the file will be created and opened for both read and write.  The
 | 
						||
optional <em>flag</em> parameter has the same interpretation as for the <a class="reference internal" href="#shelve.open" title="shelve.open"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">open()</span></code></a>
 | 
						||
function.  The optional <em>protocol</em> and <em>writeback</em> parameters have the same
 | 
						||
interpretation as for the <a class="reference internal" href="#shelve.Shelf" title="shelve.Shelf"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Shelf</span></code></a> class.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd></dl>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
</section>
 | 
						||
<section id="example">
 | 
						||
<span id="shelve-example"></span><h2>Example<a class="headerlink" href="#example" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
 | 
						||
<p>To summarize the interface (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">key</span></code> is a string, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">data</span></code> is an arbitrary
 | 
						||
object):</p>
 | 
						||
<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">shelve</span>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<span class="n">d</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">shelve</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">filename</span><span class="p">)</span>  <span class="c1"># open -- file may get suffix added by low-level</span>
 | 
						||
                           <span class="c1"># library</span>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<span class="n">d</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">key</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">data</span>              <span class="c1"># store data at key (overwrites old data if</span>
 | 
						||
                           <span class="c1"># using an existing key)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="n">data</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">d</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">key</span><span class="p">]</span>              <span class="c1"># retrieve a COPY of data at key (raise KeyError</span>
 | 
						||
                           <span class="c1"># if no such key)</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="k">del</span> <span class="n">d</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">key</span><span class="p">]</span>                 <span class="c1"># delete data stored at key (raises KeyError</span>
 | 
						||
                           <span class="c1"># if no such key)</span>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<span class="n">flag</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">key</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">d</span>            <span class="c1"># true if the key exists</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="n">klist</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">d</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">keys</span><span class="p">())</span>     <span class="c1"># a list of all existing keys (slow!)</span>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<span class="c1"># as d was opened WITHOUT writeback=True, beware:</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="n">d</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'xx'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">]</span>        <span class="c1"># this works as expected, but...</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="n">d</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'xx'</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">append</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">)</span>          <span class="c1"># *this doesn't!* -- d['xx'] is STILL [0, 1, 2]!</span>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<span class="c1"># having opened d without writeback=True, you need to code carefully:</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="n">temp</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">d</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'xx'</span><span class="p">]</span>             <span class="c1"># extracts the copy</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="n">temp</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">append</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">)</span>             <span class="c1"># mutates the copy</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="n">d</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'xx'</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">temp</span>             <span class="c1"># stores the copy right back, to persist it</span>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<span class="c1"># or, d=shelve.open(filename,writeback=True) would let you just code</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="c1"># d['xx'].append(5) and have it work as expected, BUT it would also</span>
 | 
						||
<span class="c1"># consume more memory and make the d.close() operation slower.</span>
 | 
						||
 | 
						||
<span class="n">d</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">close</span><span class="p">()</span>                  <span class="c1"># close it</span>
 | 
						||
</pre></div>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
<div class="admonition seealso">
 | 
						||
<p class="admonition-title">See also</p>
 | 
						||
<dl class="simple">
 | 
						||
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="dbm.html#module-dbm" title="dbm: Interfaces to various Unix "database" formats."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dbm</span></code></a></dt><dd><p>Generic interface to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dbm</span></code>-style databases.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd>
 | 
						||
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="pickle.html#module-pickle" title="pickle: Convert Python objects to streams of bytes and back."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pickle</span></code></a></dt><dd><p>Object serialization used by <a class="reference internal" href="#module-shelve" title="shelve: Python object persistence."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shelve</span></code></a>.</p>
 | 
						||
</dd>
 | 
						||
</dl>
 | 
						||
</div>
 | 
						||
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 | 
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 | 
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 | 
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<li><a class="reference internal" href="#"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">shelve</span></code> — Python object persistence</a><ul>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#restrictions">Restrictions</a></li>
 | 
						||
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#example">Example</a></li>
 | 
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 | 
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                          title="previous chapter"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">copyreg</span></code> — Register <code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pickle</span></code> support functions</a></p>
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