You’re definitely not alone in facing this issue! It can be pretty confusing when you’re starting out with Python. The error message you’re getting, TypeError: unhashable type: 'dict', is telling you that dictionaries can’t be used as keys in other dictionaries because they can change (or are mutable). Only immutable types like strings, tuples, or numbers can be used as keys.

So, if you want to use configurations or settings as keys, you might consider a couple of options:

• Convert the Inner Dictionary to a Tuple: You can turn the dictionary into a tuple. One way to do this is by creating a sorted tuple of its items. Here’s a quick example:

config = {'setting1': 'value1', 'setting2': 'value2'}
# Convert dictionary to a tuple of its sorted items
key = tuple(sorted(config.items()))
nested_dict = {key: 'related values'}

• Use a String Representation: If the configuration is simple, turning it into a string could also work. You could do something like:

config = {'setting1': 'value1', 'setting2': 'value2'}
# Create a string key
key = f"{config['setting1']}_{config['setting2']}"
nested_dict = {key: 'related values'}

• A Different Structure: Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, you might want to consider using a list of dictionaries or a list of tuples instead of nesting dictionaries. Sometimes a structure like:

data = [
    {'setting1': 'value1', 'setting2': 'value2', 'related_value': 'value1'},
    {'setting1': 'value3', 'setting2': 'value4', 'related_value': 'value2'}
]

could be a cleaner and more manageable solution!

In the end, it all boils down to how you want to access your data later on. If opting for strings or tuples makes it easier to retrieve data later, go for it! Don’t stress too much; experimenting with different structures is totally part of learning. Hope this helps you get past the unhashable problem!