How to print a dictionary line by line in Python?

Question

This is the dictionary

cars = {\'A\':{\'speed\':70,
        \'color\':2},
        \'B\':{\'speed\':60,
        \'color\':3}}

Using this

Answer 1

Here is my solution to the problem. I think it's similar in approach, but a little simpler than some of the other answers. It also allows for an arbitrary number of sub-dictionaries and seems to work for any datatype (I even tested it on a dictionary which had functions as values):

def pprint(web, level):
    for k,v in web.items():
        if isinstance(v, dict):
            print('\t'*level, f'{k}: ')
            level += 1
            pprint(v, level)
            level -= 1
        else:
            print('\t'*level, k, ": ", v)

Answer 2

for x in cars:
    print (x)
    for y in cars[x]:
        print (y,':',cars[x][y])

output:

A
color : 2
speed : 70
B
color : 3
speed : 60

Answer 3

A more generalized solution that handles arbitrarily-deeply nested dicts and lists would be:

def dumpclean(obj):
    if isinstance(obj, dict):
        for k, v in obj.items():
            if hasattr(v, '__iter__'):
                print k
                dumpclean(v)
            else:
                print '%s : %s' % (k, v)
    elif isinstance(obj, list):
        for v in obj:
            if hasattr(v, '__iter__'):
                dumpclean(v)
            else:
                print v
    else:
        print obj

This produces the output:

A
color : 2
speed : 70
B
color : 3
speed : 60

I ran into a similar need and developed a more robust function as an exercise for myself. I'm including it here in case it can be of value to another. In running nosetest, I also found it helpful to be able to specify the output stream in the call so that sys.stderr could be used instead.

import sys

def dump(obj, nested_level=0, output=sys.stdout):
    spacing = '   '
    if isinstance(obj, dict):
        print >> output, '%s{' % ((nested_level) * spacing)
        for k, v in obj.items():
            if hasattr(v, '__iter__'):
                print >> output, '%s%s:' % ((nested_level + 1) * spacing, k)
                dump(v, nested_level + 1, output)
            else:
                print >> output, '%s%s: %s' % ((nested_level + 1) * spacing, k, v)
        print >> output, '%s}' % (nested_level * spacing)
    elif isinstance(obj, list):
        print >> output, '%s[' % ((nested_level) * spacing)
        for v in obj:
            if hasattr(v, '__iter__'):
                dump(v, nested_level + 1, output)
            else:
                print >> output, '%s%s' % ((nested_level + 1) * spacing, v)
        print >> output, '%s]' % ((nested_level) * spacing)
    else:
        print >> output, '%s%s' % (nested_level * spacing, obj)

Using this function, the OP's output looks like this:

{
   A:
   {
      color: 2
      speed: 70
   }
   B:
   {
      color: 3
      speed: 60
   }
}

which I personally found to be more useful and descriptive.

Given the slightly less-trivial example of:

{"test": [{1:3}], "test2":[(1,2),(3,4)],"test3": {(1,2):['abc', 'def', 'ghi'],(4,5):'def'}}

The OP's requested solution yields this:

test
1 : 3
test3
(1, 2)
abc
def
ghi
(4, 5) : def
test2
(1, 2)
(3, 4)

whereas the 'enhanced' version yields this:

{
   test:
   [
      {
         1: 3
      }
   ]
   test3:
   {
      (1, 2):
      [
         abc
         def
         ghi
      ]
      (4, 5): def
   }
   test2:
   [
      (1, 2)
      (3, 4)
   ]
}

I hope this provides some value to the next person looking for this type of functionality.

Answer 4

You have a nested structure, so you need to format the nested dictionary too:

for key, car in cars.items():
    print(key)
    for attribute, value in car.items():
        print('{} : {}'.format(attribute, value))

This prints:

A
color : 2
speed : 70
B
color : 3
speed : 60

Answer 5

This will work if you know the tree only has two levels:

for k1 in cars:
    print(k1)
    d = cars[k1]
    for k2 in d
        print(k2, ':', d[k2])

Answer 6

pprint.pprint() is a good tool for this job:

>>> import pprint
>>> cars = {'A':{'speed':70,
...         'color':2},
...         'B':{'speed':60,
...         'color':3}}
>>> pprint.pprint(cars, width=1)
{'A': {'color': 2,
       'speed': 70},
 'B': {'color': 3,
       'speed': 60}}