Convert nested Python dict to object?

Question

I\'m searching for an elegant way to get data using attribute access on a dict with some nested dicts and lists (i.e. javascript-style object syntax).

For example:

Answer 1

Let me explain a solution I almost used some time ago. But first, the reason I did not is illustrated by the fact that the following code:

d = {'from': 1}
x = dict2obj(d)

print x.from

gives this error:

  File "test.py", line 20
    print x.from == 1
                ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Because "from" is a Python keyword there are certain dictionary keys you cannot allow.

---

Now my solution allows access to the dictionary items by using their names directly. But it also allows you to use "dictionary semantics". Here is the code with example usage:

class dict2obj(dict):
    def __init__(self, dict_):
        super(dict2obj, self).__init__(dict_)
        for key in self:
            item = self[key]
            if isinstance(item, list):
                for idx, it in enumerate(item):
                    if isinstance(it, dict):
                        item[idx] = dict2obj(it)
            elif isinstance(item, dict):
                self[key] = dict2obj(item)

    def __getattr__(self, key):
        return self[key]

d = {'a': 1, 'b': {'c': 2}, 'd': ["hi", {'foo': "bar"}]}

x = dict2obj(d)

assert x.a == x['a'] == 1
assert x.b.c == x['b']['c'] == 2
assert x.d[1].foo == x['d'][1]['foo'] == "bar"

Answer 2

class Struct(dict):
    def __getattr__(self, name):
        try:
            return self[name]
        except KeyError:
            raise AttributeError(name)

    def __setattr__(self, name, value):
        self[name] = value

    def copy(self):
        return Struct(dict.copy(self))

Usage:

points = Struct(x=1, y=2)
# Changing
points['x'] = 2
points.y = 1
# Accessing
points['x'], points.x, points.get('x') # 2 2 2
points['y'], points.y, points.get('y') # 1 1 1
# Accessing inexistent keys/attrs 
points['z'] # KeyError: z
points.z # AttributeError: z
# Copying
points_copy = points.copy()
points.x = 2
points_copy.x # 1

Answer 3

class obj(object):
    def __init__(self, d):
        for a, b in d.items():
            if isinstance(b, (list, tuple)):
               setattr(self, a, [obj(x) if isinstance(x, dict) else x for x in b])
            else:
               setattr(self, a, obj(b) if isinstance(b, dict) else b)

>>> d = {'a': 1, 'b': {'c': 2}, 'd': ["hi", {'foo': "bar"}]}
>>> x = obj(d)
>>> x.b.c
2
>>> x.d[1].foo
'bar'

Answer 4

You can leverage the json module of the standard library with a custom object hook:

import json

class obj(object):
    def __init__(self, dict_):
        self.__dict__.update(dict_)

def dict2obj(d):
    return json.loads(json.dumps(d), object_hook=obj)

Example usage:

>>> d = {'a': 1, 'b': {'c': 2}, 'd': ['hi', {'foo': 'bar'}]}
>>> o = dict2obj(d)
>>> o.a
1
>>> o.b.c
2
>>> o.d[0]
u'hi'
>>> o.d[1].foo
u'bar'

And it is not strictly read-only as it is with namedtuple, i.e. you can change values – not structure:

>>> o.b.c = 3
>>> o.b.c
3

Answer 5

Here's another implementation:

class DictObj(object):
    def __init__(self, d):
        self.__dict__ = d

def dict_to_obj(d):
    if isinstance(d, (list, tuple)): return map(dict_to_obj, d)
    elif not isinstance(d, dict): return d
    return DictObj(dict((k, dict_to_obj(v)) for (k,v) in d.iteritems()))

[Edit] Missed bit about also handling dicts within lists, not just other dicts. Added fix.

Answer 6

I think a dict consists of number, string and dict is enough most time. So I ignore the situation that tuples, lists and other types not appearing in the final dimension of a dict.

Considering inheritance, combined with recursion, it solves the print problem conveniently and also provides two ways to query a data,one way to edit a data.

See the example below, a dict that describes some information about students:

group=["class1","class2","class3","class4",]
rank=["rank1","rank2","rank3","rank4","rank5",]
data=["name","sex","height","weight","score"]

#build a dict based on the lists above
student_dic=dict([(g,dict([(r,dict([(d,'') for d in data])) for r in rank ]))for g in group])

#this is the solution
class dic2class(dict):
    def __init__(self, dic):
        for key,val in dic.items():
            self.__dict__[key]=self[key]=dic2class(val) if isinstance(val,dict) else val


student_class=dic2class(student_dic)

#one way to edit:
student_class.class1.rank1['sex']='male'
student_class.class1.rank1['name']='Nan Xiang'

#two ways to query:
print student_class.class1.rank1
print student_class.class1['rank1']
print '-'*50
for rank in student_class.class1:
    print getattr(student_class.class1,rank)

Results:

{'score': '', 'sex': 'male', 'name': 'Nan Xiang', 'weight': '', 'height': ''}
{'score': '', 'sex': 'male', 'name': 'Nan Xiang', 'weight': '', 'height': ''}
--------------------------------------------------
{'score': '', 'sex': '', 'name': '', 'weight': '', 'height': ''}
{'score': '', 'sex': '', 'name': '', 'weight': '', 'height': ''}
{'score': '', 'sex': 'male', 'name': 'Nan Xiang', 'weight': '', 'height': ''}
{'score': '', 'sex': '', 'name': '', 'weight': '', 'height': ''}
{'score': '', 'sex': '', 'name': '', 'weight': '', 'height': ''}