What makes dataclasses preferable to dict

Question

Hello,
I copied this code from python docu.
When should one use it instead of dictionary.
I see no improvement against dict.

https://code.sololearn.com/cDPIFyKS43WR/?ref=app

Answer 1

Your data class example has a method and multiple properties. Dictionaries have a key and a value only so two properties stored in a list structure. They serve two different purposes. You could maintain your group of dataclasses in a dictionary using name as the key and the class as the value. The dataclass would have difficulty replacing the dictionary.