# defaultdict.py >>> d = {} >>> d['age'] = d.get('age', 0) + 1 # age not there, we get 0 + 1 >>> d {'age': 1} >>> d = {'age': 39} >>> d['age'] = d.get('age', 0) + 1 # age is there, we get 40 >>> d {'age': 40} >>> from collections import defaultdict >>> dd = defaultdict(int) # int is the default type (0 the value) >>> dd['age'] += 1 # short for dd['age'] = dd['age'] + 1 >>> dd defaultdict(, {'age': 1}) # 1, as expected