# Dive Into Python

Python from novice to pro

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## 3.8. Summary

The `odbchelper.py` program and its output should now make perfect sense.

    def buildConnectionString(params):
        """Build a connection string from a dictionary of parameters.

        Returns string."""
        return ";".join(["%s=%s" % (k, v) for k, v in params.items()])

    if __name__ == "__main__":
        myParams = {"server":"mpilgrim", \
                    "database":"master", \
                    "uid":"sa", \
                    "pwd":"secret" \
                    }
        print buildConnectionString(myParams)

Here is the output of `odbchelper.py`:

    server=mpilgrim;uid=sa;database=master;pwd=secret

Before diving into the next chapter, make sure you're comfortable doing all of these things:

- Using the Python IDE to test expressions interactively
- Writing Python programs and running them from within your IDE, or from the command line
- Importing modules and calling their functions
- Declaring functions and using `doc string`s, local variables, and proper indentation
- Defining dictionaries, tuples, and lists
- Accessing attributes and methods of any object, including strings, lists, dictionaries, functions, and modules
- Concatenating values through string formatting
- Mapping lists into other lists using list comprehensions
- Splitting strings into lists and joining lists into strings