Make a dictionary with duplicate keys in Python

Question

I have the following list which contains duplicate car registration numbers with different values. I want to convert it into a dictionary which accepts this multiple keys of

Answer 1

If you want to have lists only when they are necessary, and values in any other cases, then you can do this:

class DictList(dict):
    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
        try:
            # Assumes there is a list on the key
            self[key].append(value)
        except KeyError: # If it fails, because there is no key
            super(DictList, self).__setitem__(key, value)
        except AttributeError: # If it fails because it is not a list
            super(DictList, self).__setitem__(key, [self[key], value])

You can then do the following:

dl = DictList()
dl['a']  = 1
dl['b']  = 2
dl['b'] = 3

Which will store the following {'a': 1, 'b': [2, 3]}.

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I tend to use this implementation when I want to have reverse/inverse dictionaries, in which case I simply do:

my_dict = {1: 'a', 2: 'b', 3: 'b'}
rev = DictList()
for k, v in my_dict.items():
    rev_med[v] = k

Which will generate the same output as above: {'a': 1, 'b': [2, 3]}.

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CAVEAT: This implementation relies on the non-existence of the append method (in the values you are storing). This might produce unexpected results if the values you are storing are lists. For example,

dl = DictList()
dl['a']  = 1
dl['b']  = [2]
dl['b'] = 3

would produce the same result as before {'a': 1, 'b': [2, 3]}, but one might expected the following: {'a': 1, 'b': [[2], 3]}.