Dict Mini Project — Pet Shop

What you're building

A pet shop manager. Each animal has a name, species, price, and availability.

The user can view all animals, search by name, and mark one as sold.

What you need to know first

• Nested dicts
• items() to loop over key-value pairs
• in and get() for safe lookup
• while True with break
• input()

The brief

Build a program that:

• Starts with a pre-filled nested dict — at least four animals
• Shows a menu: 1 — View all, 2 — Search, 3 — Buy, 4 — Quit
• On view: lists every animal with species, price, and availability
• On search: asks for a name, prints that animal's details or "not found"
• On buy: asks for a name, marks it as sold if available — or reports it's already gone
• On quit: exits cleanly

Think before you code

• What keys does each animal's inner dict need?
• How do you check if an animal exists before searching or buying?
• How do you mark an animal as sold without removing it from the dict?
• What do you show when an animal is already sold?

Your starting point

shop = {
    "Rex":     {"species": "Dog",    "price": 350.00, "available": True},
    "Whisker": {"species": "Cat",    "price": 180.00, "available": True},
    "Tango":   {"species": "Parrot", "price": 220.00, "available": True},
    "Bubbles": {"species": "Fish",   "price":  25.00, "available": True}
}

while True:
    print("\n1 — View all")
    print("2 — Search")
    print("3 — Buy")
    print("4 — Quit")
    choice = input("Your choice: ")

    # your code here

Expected output

Your choice: 1

Available animals:
- Rex       Dog      $350.00   available
- Whisker   Cat      $180.00   available
- Tango     Parrot   $220.00   available
- Bubbles   Fish     $ 25.00   available

Your choice: 2
Search: Tango

Tango — Parrot — $220.00 — available

Your choice: 3
Buy: Rex

Rex sold. Good choice.

Your choice: 1

Available animals:
- Rex       Dog      $350.00   SOLD
- Whisker   Cat      $180.00   available
- Tango     Parrot   $220.00   available
- Bubbles   Fish     $ 25.00   available

Your choice: 3
Buy: Rex

Rex is already sold.

Your choice: 4
Out.

Heads up!

• Use .capitalize() on input so "rex" and "REX" both match "Rex"
• Marking as sold means setting "available" to False — not removing the entry
• Check existence with in before accessing any inner key
• View all shows every animal — sold and available

The solution

shop = {
    "Rex":     {"species": "Dog",    "price": 350.00, "available": True},
    "Whisker": {"species": "Cat",    "price": 180.00, "available": True},
    "Tango":   {"species": "Parrot", "price": 220.00, "available": True},
    "Bubbles": {"species": "Fish",   "price":  25.00, "available": True}
}

while True:
    print("\n1 — View all")
    print("2 — Search")
    print("3 — Buy")
    print("4 — Quit")
    choice = input("Your choice: ")

    if choice == "1":
        print()
        for name, data in shop.items():
            status = "available" if data["available"] else "SOLD"
            print(f"- {name:<10} {data['species']:<8} ${data['price']:>6.2f}   {status}")

    elif choice == "2":
        name = input("Search: ").capitalize()
        if name in shop:
            data = shop[name]
            status = "available" if data["available"] else "SOLD"
            print(f"\n{name} — {data['species']} — ${data['price']:.2f} — {status}")
        else:
            print(f'"{name}" not found.')

    elif choice == "3":
        name = input("Buy: ").capitalize()
        if name in shop:
            if shop[name]["available"]:
                shop[name]["available"] = False
                print(f"{name} sold. Good choice.")
            else:
                print(f"{name} is already sold.")
        else:
            print(f'"{name}" not found.')

    elif choice == "4":
        print("Out.")
        break

    else:
        print("Invalid choice. Enter 1 to 4.")