How to merge dictionaries of dictionaries?

Question

I need to merge multiple dictionaries, here\'s what I have for instance:

dict1 = {1:{\"a\":{A}}, 2:{\"b\":{B}}}

dict2 = {2:{\"c\":{C}}, 3:{\"d\":{D}}
         


        

Answer 1

Based on @andrew cooke. This version handles nested lists of dicts and also allows the option to update the values

def merge(a, b, path=None, update=True):
    "http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7204805/python-dictionaries-of-dictionaries-merge"
    "merges b into a"
    if path is None: path = []
    for key in b:
        if key in a:
            if isinstance(a[key], dict) and isinstance(b[key], dict):
                merge(a[key], b[key], path + [str(key)])
            elif a[key] == b[key]:
                pass # same leaf value
            elif isinstance(a[key], list) and isinstance(b[key], list):
                for idx, val in enumerate(b[key]):
                    a[key][idx] = merge(a[key][idx], b[key][idx], path + [str(key), str(idx)], update=update)
            elif update:
                a[key] = b[key]
            else:
                raise Exception('Conflict at %s' % '.'.join(path + [str(key)]))
        else:
            a[key] = b[key]
    return a