Thank you for the reply. Yes I did read the section of the manual for dictionaries. But this is exactly what I am getting at in my original post. If people didn't already know what this was then they wouldn't be able to do anything with it in this software. For example it says that a dictionary is for storing strings and numbers. What kind of strings? What is a string?
Strings are text. They and their use are described more in depth here: construct.net/en
A basic example of use is the part about the score in the beginners tutorial: construct.net/en
what kind of numbers would I store there? Why would I store them there? How is this function going to benefit me? What can be done with this?
Well, it's a very open question ? it's sort of like asking what you can do with a stick. You could use it to prop something up, build something, draw something in sand? The dictionary object can similarly be used for many things, anything from simple value storage (money, points) to more advanced uses like dialogue storage for an entire RPG.
If you're familiar with the concept of an array, it's sort of like that except instead of using numbers to retrieve a value from a grid of values, you use text (a string) to retrieve it instead. Because of this, it's very flexible and you can dynamically create keys with events in ways that would be cumbersome with an array's method of a numerical grid location. It's also easier to read, as you don't have to remember what value is stored where in the array. Compare:
Set points to array.at(0,2)
Set points to dictionary.get("score")
I find the easiest way to think of it is as a dynamic variable object. You can't give a sprite new variables at run time, but you can give the dictionary new keys (keys are basically variables with a different name) at runtime.