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Share the Streamlit and Python versions. 1.46.1 and 3.13.1
I am trying to create a selectbox from a list of dictionaries that includes and name and an id. I want the user to see the (possibly duplicated_ names but to have the unique id returned. I find that this does not work. When I pick each duplicated name I get the same id (the last one in the list). Here is a failing example.
import streamlit as st
data = [{"name":'Ron', "id": 1}, {"name":'Fred', "id": 2}, {"name":'George', "id": 3}, {"name":'Fred', "id": 4}, {"name":'George', "id": 5}]
labels = [x["name"] for x in data]
options = [x["id"] for x in data]
dic = dict(zip(options, labels))
a = st.selectbox('Choose name', options=options, format_func=lambda x: dic[x])
st.write(a)
That definitely does seem to be a bug. I don’t see anything about that when looking at open issues, so feel free to create a new one Sign in to GitHub · GitHub if you’d like
As a silly work-around, you can add some invisible characters to the names if you want them to stay unique, and this seems to fix the issue
import streamlit as st
data = [
{"name": "Ron", "id": 1},
{"name": "Fred", "id": 2},
{"name": "George", "id": 3},
{"name": "Fred", "id": 4},
{"name": "George", "id": 5},
]
labels = [x["name"] for x in data]
options = [x["id"] for x in data]
dic = dict(zip(options, labels))
new_d = {}
for k, v in dic.items():
new_d[k] = str(v) + "\u200b" * k
st.write(new_d)
a = st.selectbox("Choose name", options=new_d.keys(), format_func=lambda x: new_d[x])
st.write(a)
It’s a regression that happened when we introduced accept_new_options for st.multiselect and st.selectbox. As I understand it, it’s the same underlying problem for both widgets. Previously, items were tracked (internally) by their position, but now (because of the ability to add options), items are tracked by their label. This means, it’s always the first instance of a label that comes back as selected.
Yes, I am facing the same issue in my app currently. Please fix this as soon as possible, since it’s a pretty common use-case to have duplicate labels in a selectbox.