Generic way to create nested dictionary from flat list in python

Question

I am looking for the simplest generic way to convert this python list:

x = [
        {\"foo\":\"A\", \"bar\":\"R\", \"baz\":\"X\"},
                 


        

Answer 1

I would define a function that performs a single grouping step like this:

from itertools import groupby
def group(items, key, subs_name):
    return [{
        key: g,
        subs_name: [dict((k, v) for k, v in s.iteritems() if k != key)
            for s in sub]
    } for g, sub in groupby(sorted(items, key=lambda item: item[key]),
        lambda item: item[key])]

and then do

[{'foo': g['foo'], 'bars': group(g['bars'], "bar", "bazs")} for g in group(x,
     "foo", "bars")]

which gives the desired result for foos.