To retrieve a value from a dictionary, you use Python’s indexing ... { "variable": some_var, "function ... If you want to use a value to execute an action or just return another value, ...

The other is to store values to match as keys in a dictionary, then use the values to take an action—e.g., store a function as a value and use the key or some other variable as input.

The one place they are pretty convenient is in languages (like Python) where multiple return values from one function can be used as multiple input parameters to another.