Creating a nested dictionary from a flattened dictionary

Question

I have a flattened dictionary which I want to make into a nested one, of the form

flat = {\'X_a_one\': 10,
        \'X_a_two\': 20, 
        \'X_b_one\': 10,         


        

Answer 1

Here is my take:

def nest_dict(flat):
    result = {}
    for k, v in flat.items():
        _nest_dict_rec(k, v, result)
    return result

def _nest_dict_rec(k, v, out):
    k, *rest = k.split('_', 1)
    if rest:
        _nest_dict_rec(rest[0], v, out.setdefault(k, {}))
    else:
        out[k] = v

flat = {'X_a_one': 10,
        'X_a_two': 20, 
        'X_b_one': 10,
        'X_b_two': 20, 
        'Y_a_one': 10,
        'Y_a_two': 20,
        'Y_b_one': 10,
        'Y_b_two': 20}
nested = {'X': {'a': {'one': 10,
                      'two': 20}, 
                'b': {'one': 10,
                      'two': 20}}, 
          'Y': {'a': {'one': 10,
                      'two': 20},
                'b': {'one': 10,
                      'two': 20}}}
print(nest_dict(flat) == nested)
# True