Data Structure Option - python-3.x

Question

I'm wondering what appropriate data structure I'm going to use to store information about chemical elements that I have in a text file. My program should
read and process input from the user. If the user enters an integer then it program
should display the symbol and name of the element with the number of protons
entered. If the user enters a string then my program should display the number
of protons for the element with that name or symbol.
The text file is formatted as below
# element.txt
1,H,Hydrogen
2,He,Helium
3,Li,Lithium
4,Be,Beryllium
...
I thought of dictionary but figured that mapping a string to a list can be tricky as my program would respond based on whether the user provides an integer or a string.

Answer 1

You shouldn't be worried about the "performance" of looking for an element:
There are no more than 200 elements, which is a small number for a computer;
Since the program interacts with a human user, the human will be orders of magnitude slower than the computer anyway.
Option 1: pandas.DataFrame
Hence I suggest a simple pandas DataFrame:
import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv('element.txt')
df.columns = ['Number', 'Symbol', 'Name']
def get_column_and_key(s):
s = s.strip()
try:
k = int(s)
return 'Number', k
except ValueError:
if len(s) <= 2:
return 'Symbol', s
else:
return 'Name', s
def find_element(s):
column, key = get_column_and_key(s)
return df[df[column] == key]
def play():
keep_going = True
while keep_going:
s = input('>>>> ')
if s[0] == 'q':
keep_going = False
else:
print(find_element(s))
if __name__ == '__main__':
play()
See also:
Finding elements in a pandas dataframe
Option 2: three redundant dicts
One of python's most used data structures is dict. Here we have three different possible keys, so we'll use three dict.
import csv
with open('element.txt', 'r') as f:
data = csv.reader(f)
elements_by_num = {}
elements_by_symbol = {}
elements_by_name = {}
for row in data:
num, symbol, name = int(row[0]), row[1], row[2]
elements_by_num[num] = num, symbol, name
elements_by_symbol[symbol] = num, symbol, name
elements_by_name[name] = num, symbol, name
def get_dict_and_key(s):
s = s.strip()
try:
k = int(s)
return elements_by_num, k
except ValueError:
if len(s) <= 2:
return elements_by_symbol, s
else:
return elements_by_name, s
def find_element(s):
d, key = get_dict_and_key(s)
return d[key]
def play():
keep_going = True
while keep_going:
s = input('>>>> ')
if s[0] == 'q':
keep_going = False
else:
print(find_element(s))
if __name__ == '__main__':
play()

Answer 2

You are right that it is tricky. However, I suggest you just make three dictionaries. You certainly can just store the data in a 2d list, but that'd be way harder to make and access than using three dicts. If you desire, you can join the three dicts into one. I personally wouldn't, but the final choice is always up to you.
weight = {1: ("H", "Hydrogen"), 2: ...}
symbol = {"H": (1, "Hydrogen"), "He": ...}
name = {"Hydrogen": (1, "H"), "Helium": ...}
If you want to get into databases and some QLs, I suggest looking into sqlite3. It's a classic, thus it's well documented.