Use Lookup on associations that contain conditional statements

Question

I am using conditional statements in a list of rules to replace values in a vector of data. Since the same operation can be performed faster using Lookup on associations I would like to use this alternative procedure. However, I can not figure out how incorporate a conditional statement in an association but always receive output in the form of Missing["KeyAbsent", data]. Any tips how to achieve this?

Here is some example code and corresponding output:

(*Setting up the list of rules and corresponding association*)
assoc = <|1. -> "a", 2. -> "b", x_ /; x >= 3. -> "c"|>;
rule = {1. -> "a", 2. -> "b", x_ /; x >= 3. -> "c"};

(*Apply association and rule on data*)
data = {1., 3., 2., 4.};
dataRule = data /. rule
dataAssoc = Lookup[assoc, data]

Out[1]= {"a", 3., "b", "c"}
Out[2]= {"a", Missing["KeyAbsent", 3.], "b", Missing["KeyAbsent", 4.]}

I have consulted the documentation and searched the web about my issue but have not found an answer. Apologies should I have overlooked relevant information.

Every help is dearly appreciated!

Answer 1

There is a misunderstanding here. Associations are not replacement rules. Keys are never interpreted as patterns. Associations are just a dictionary-like data structure that associates static values to static keys. The pattern in your association is treated like any other expression and is not used as a pattern, not even if you use this association with ReplaceAll.

If you are looking to speed up replacement rules, look at using Dispatch with Replace[..., {1}], not Association with Lookup.

In your particular application, you may find the default value of Lookup (3rd argument) useful.