# Group Similar Links in netlab Topologies

DevFeed: [Group Similar Links in netlab Topologies](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/group-similar-links-in-netlab-topologies-11137.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.ipspace.net/2025/02/netlab-link-dictionary/>)

Published: 2025-02-06T07:39:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [ipSpace.net blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/ipspace-net-blog.md>)

Topics: [Data structures](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data-structures.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data.md>)

Tags: [blog](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/blog.md>), [blog-post](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/blog-post.md>), [data-structure](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data-structure.md>), [netlab](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/netlab.md>), [structure](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/structure.md>), [troubleshooting](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/troubleshooting.md>)

## AI overview

The article explains how to use a dictionary of links in netlab topologies to group links with common functionality and make topology errors easier to locate. It describes nested dictionaries and how netlab preserves dictionary keys during topology transformation for troubleshooting.

## Source excerpt

In the Concise Link Descriptions blog post, I described various data formats that you could use to concisely list nodes attached to a link. Today, we'll focus on a mechanism that helps you spot errors in your topology: a dictionary of links. Imagine you have a large topology with dozens of links, and you get an error saying, "there is this problem with links[17]". It must be great fun counting the links to find which one triggered the error, right? Read more ...