How to preserve matlab struct when accessing in python?

Question

I have a mat-file that I accessed using

from scipy import io
mat = io.loadmat(\'example.mat\')

From matlab, example.mat contains the following

Answer 1

this will return the mat structure as a dictionary

def _check_keys( dict):
"""
checks if entries in dictionary are mat-objects. If yes
todict is called to change them to nested dictionaries
"""
for key in dict:
    if isinstance(dict[key], sio.matlab.mio5_params.mat_struct):
        dict[key] = _todict(dict[key])
return dict


def _todict(matobj):
    """
    A recursive function which constructs from matobjects nested dictionaries
    """
    dict = {}
    for strg in matobj._fieldnames:
        elem = matobj.__dict__[strg]
        if isinstance(elem, sio.matlab.mio5_params.mat_struct):
            dict[strg] = _todict(elem)
        else:
            dict[strg] = elem
    return dict


def loadmat(filename):
    """
    this function should be called instead of direct scipy.io .loadmat
    as it cures the problem of not properly recovering python dictionaries
    from mat files. It calls the function check keys to cure all entries
    which are still mat-objects
    """
    data = sio.loadmat(filename, struct_as_record=False, squeeze_me=True)
    return _check_keys(data)