Very Simple Database in Python

Experimenting with big lookup tables for my weather code lookup server. Instead of using a big configparse file, I want to try a small database.

Python's dbm bindings are included in the default install of Ubuntu. It's light and easy to use.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import dbm.gnu                # python3-gdbm package
zipcodes = '/tmp/testdb'

# Create a new database with one entry
# Schema: Key is Zipcode
# Value is Observation_Station_Code, Radar_Station_Code, Forecast_Zone
zipc = dbm.gnu.open(zipcodes, 'c')
zipc['53207'] = b'kmke,mkx,wiz066'

# Close and reopen the database
zipc.close()
zipd = dbm.gnu.open(zipcodes, 'r')

# List of database keys
keys = zipd.keys()

# Retrieve and print one entry
print(zipd[keys[0]].decode('utf-8').split(','))

zipd.close()

It works very well and is very fast. It's not easy to view or edit the database with other applications, since it is binary (not text).