# Values With Subkeys

### Values with subkeys

The Subnet DHT also supports a special value type that is itself a dictionary. When nodes store such a value, they add subkeys to the dictionary instead of overwriting it.

Consider an example where three DHT nodes want to find out who is going to attend the party:

```python
alice_dht = DHT(initial_peers=dht.get_visible_maddrs(), start=True)
bob_dht = DHT(initial_peers=dht2.get_visible_maddrs(), start=True)
carol_dht = DHT(initial_peers=alice_dht.get_visible_maddrs(), start=True)


# first, each peer stores a subkey for the same key
alice_dht.store('party', subkey='alice', value='yes', expiration_time=get_dht_time() + 600)
bob_dht.store('party', subkey='bob', value='yes', expiration_time=get_dht_time() + 600)
carol_dht.store('party', subkey='carol', value='no', expiration_time=get_dht_time() + 600)

# then, any peer can get the full list of attendees
attendees, expiration = alice_dht.get('party', latest=True)
print(attendees)
# {'alice': ValueWithExpiration(value='yes', expiration_time=1625504352.2668974),
#  'bob': ValueWithExpiration(value='yes', expiration_time=1625504352.2884178),
#  'carol': ValueWithExpiration(value='no', expiration_time=1625504352.3046832)}
```

When running over the Internet, some `dht.get/store` requests may run for hundreds of milliseconds and even seconds. To minimize the wait time, you can call these requests asynchronously via [`dht.store/get/run_coroutine(..., return_future=True)`](/subnet-template/dht.md#get-key-any-latest-bool-false-return_future-bool-false-kwargs-union-valuewithexpiration-any-none-mpf) . This will run the corresponding command in the background and return a [Future-like](https://docs.python.org/3/library/concurrent.futures.html) object that can be awaited. Please also note that the returned future is compatible with asyncio (i.e., can be awaited inside the event loop).

For more details on DHT store/get and expiration time, please refer to the [documentation for DHT and DHTNode](/subnet-template/dht.md#dht-and-dhtnode).


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