title: Why can't I pass a direct reference to a dictionary value to a function?
body: <p>Earlier today I asked a <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/853483/can-i-pass-dictionary-values-entry-and-keys-to-function">question</a>
  about passing dictionary values to a function.  While I understand now how to accomplish what I was trying to accomplish the why question (which was not asked) was never answered.  So my follow up is why can't I </p>
  
  <pre><code>def myFunction(newDict['bubba']):
      some code to process the parameter
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is it simply because the parser rules do not allow this?  I Googled for +Python +function +"allowable parameters" and did not find anything useful so I would appreciate any information. </p>
  
  <p>I am oversimplifying what is going on.  I have a dictionary that is structured like</p>
  
  <pre><code>myDict={outerkey1:(innerkey1:value,innerkey2:value,. . .innerkeyn:value),outerkey2:(innerkey1:value,innerkey2:value,. . .innerkeyn:value),. . .}
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>As I said, I know how to do what I wanted-I got a very helpful answer.  But I started wondering why </p>
  
  <pre><code> def myFunction(outerkey,myDict[outerkey]):
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>gives a syntax error which finely it occurred to me that it has to be a parsing problem.</p>