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

Another non-recursive solution with no imports. Splitting the logic between inserting each key-value pair of the flat dict and mapping over key-value pairs of the flat dict.

def insert(dct, lst):
    """
    dct: a dict to be modified inplace.
    lst: list of elements representing a hierarchy of keys
    followed by a value.

    dct = {}
    lst = [1, 2, 3]

    resulting value of dct: {1: {2: 3}}
    """
    for x in lst[:-2]:
        dct[x] = dct = dct.get(x, dict())

    dct.update({lst[-2]: lst[-1]})


def unflat(dct):
    # empty dict to store the result
    result = dict()

    # create an iterator of lists representing hierarchical indices followed by the value
    lsts = ([*k.split("_"), v] for k, v in dct.items())

    # insert each list into the result
    for lst in lsts:
        insert(result, lst)

    return result


result = unflat(flat)
# {'X': {'a': {'one': 10, 'two': 20}, 'b': {'one': 10, 'two': 20}},
# 'Y': {'a': {'one': 10, 'two': 20}, 'b': {'one': 10, 'two': 20}}}