Recursively convert python object graph to dictionary

Question

I\'m trying to convert the data from a simple object graph into a dictionary. I don\'t need type information or methods and I don\'t need to be able to convert it back to an

Answer 1

I realize that this answer is a few years too late, but I thought it might be worth sharing since it's a Python 3.3+ compatible modification to the original solution by @Shabbyrobe that has generally worked well for me:

import collections
try:
  # Python 2.7+
  basestring
except NameError:
  # Python 3.3+
  basestring = str 

def todict(obj):
  """ 
  Recursively convert a Python object graph to sequences (lists)
  and mappings (dicts) of primitives (bool, int, float, string, ...)
  """
  if isinstance(obj, basestring):
    return obj 
  elif isinstance(obj, dict):
    return dict((key, todict(val)) for key, val in obj.items())
  elif isinstance(obj, collections.Iterable):
    return [todict(val) for val in obj]
  elif hasattr(obj, '__dict__'):
    return todict(vars(obj))
  elif hasattr(obj, '__slots__'):
    return todict(dict((name, getattr(obj, name)) for name in getattr(obj, '__slots__')))
  return obj

If you're not interested in callable attributes, for example, they can be stripped in the dictionary comprehension:

elif isinstance(obj, dict):
  return dict((key, todict(val)) for key, val in obj.items() if not callable(val))