I am learning Python (I have a C/C++ background).

I need to write something practical in Python though, whilst learning. I have the following pseudocode (my first attempt at writing a Python script, since reading about Python yesterday). Hopefully, the snippet details the logic of what I want to do. BTW I am using python 2.6 on Ubuntu Karmic.

Assume the script is invoked as: script_name.py directory_path

import csv, sys, os, glob

# Can I declare that the function accepts a dictionary as first arg?
def getItemValue(item, key, defval)
  return !item.haskey(key) ? defval : item[key]


dirname = sys.argv[1]

# declare some default values here
weight, is_male, default_city_id = 100, true, 1 

# fetch some data from a database table into a nested dictionary, indexed by a string
curr_dict = load_dict_from_db('foo')

#iterate through all the files matching *.csv in the specified folder
for infile in glob.glob( os.path.join(dirname, '*.csv') ):
  #get the file name (without the '.csv' extension)
  code = infile[0:-4]
  # open file, and iterate through the rows of the current file (a CSV file)
  f = open(infile, 'rt')
  try:
    reader = csv.reader(f)
    for row in reader:
      #lookup the id for the code in the dictionary
      id = curr_dict[code]['id']
      name = row['name']
      address1 = row['address1']
      address2 = row['address2']
      city_id = getItemValue(row, 'city_id', default_city_id)

      # insert row to database table

  finally:
    f.close()

I have the following questions:

1. Is the code written in a Pythonic enough way (is there a better way of implementing it)?

2. Given a table with a schema like shown below, how may I write a Python function that fetches data from the table and returns is in a dictionary indexed by string (name).

3. How can I insert the row data into the table (actually I would like to use a transaction if possible, and commit just before the file is closed)

Table schema:

create table demo (id int, name varchar(32), weight float, city_id int);

BTW, my backend database is postgreSQL