How do I merge dictionaries together in Python?

Question

d3 = dict(d1, **d2)

I understand that this merges the dictionary. But, is it unique? What if d1 has the same key as d2 but different value? I woul

Answer 1

My solution is to define a merge function. It's not sophisticated and just cost one line. Here's the code in Python 3.

from functools import reduce
from operator import or_

def merge(*dicts):
    return { k: reduce(lambda d, x: x.get(k, d), dicts, None) for k in reduce(or_, map(lambda x: x.keys(), dicts), set()) }

Tests

>>> d = {0: 0, 1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9, 4: 16}
>>> d_letters = {0: 'a', 1: 'b', 2: 'c', 3: 'd', 4: 'e', 5: 'f', 6: 'g', 7: 'h', 8: 'i', 9: 'j', 10: 'k', 11: 'l', 12: 'm', 13: 'n', 14: 'o', 15: 'p', 16: 'q', 17: 'r', 18: 's', 19: 't', 20: 'u', 21: 'v', 22: 'w', 23: 'x', 24: 'y', 25: 'z', 26: 'A', 27: 'B', 28: 'C', 29: 'D', 30: 'E', 31: 'F', 32: 'G', 33: 'H', 34: 'I', 35: 'J', 36: 'K', 37: 'L', 38: 'M', 39: 'N', 40: 'O', 41: 'P', 42: 'Q', 43: 'R', 44: 'S', 45: 'T', 46: 'U', 47: 'V', 48: 'W', 49: 'X', 50: 'Y', 51: 'Z'}
>>> merge(d, d_letters)
{0: 'a', 1: 'b', 2: 'c', 3: 'd', 4: 'e', 5: 'f', 6: 'g', 7: 'h', 8: 'i', 9: 'j', 10: 'k', 11: 'l', 12: 'm', 13: 'n', 14: 'o', 15: 'p', 16: 'q', 17: 'r', 18: 's', 19: 't', 20: 'u', 21: 'v', 22: 'w', 23: 'x', 24: 'y', 25: 'z', 26: 'A', 27: 'B', 28: 'C', 29: 'D', 30: 'E', 31: 'F', 32: 'G', 33: 'H', 34: 'I', 35: 'J', 36: 'K', 37: 'L', 38: 'M', 39: 'N', 40: 'O', 41: 'P', 42: 'Q', 43: 'R', 44: 'S', 45: 'T', 46: 'U', 47: 'V', 48: 'W', 49: 'X', 50: 'Y', 51: 'Z'}
>>> merge(d_letters, d)
{0: 0, 1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9, 4: 16, 5: 'f', 6: 'g', 7: 'h', 8: 'i', 9: 'j', 10: 'k', 11: 'l', 12: 'm', 13: 'n', 14: 'o', 15: 'p', 16: 'q', 17: 'r', 18: 's', 19: 't', 20: 'u', 21: 'v', 22: 'w', 23: 'x', 24: 'y', 25: 'z', 26: 'A', 27: 'B', 28: 'C', 29: 'D', 30: 'E', 31: 'F', 32: 'G', 33: 'H', 34: 'I', 35: 'J', 36: 'K', 37: 'L', 38: 'M', 39: 'N', 40: 'O', 41: 'P', 42: 'Q', 43: 'R', 44: 'S', 45: 'T', 46: 'U', 47: 'V', 48: 'W', 49: 'X', 50: 'Y', 51: 'Z'}
>>> merge(d)
{0: 0, 1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9, 4: 16}
>>> merge(d_letters)
{0: 'a', 1: 'b', 2: 'c', 3: 'd', 4: 'e', 5: 'f', 6: 'g', 7: 'h', 8: 'i', 9: 'j', 10: 'k', 11: 'l', 12: 'm', 13: 'n', 14: 'o', 15: 'p', 16: 'q', 17: 'r', 18: 's', 19: 't', 20: 'u', 21: 'v', 22: 'w', 23: 'x', 24: 'y', 25: 'z', 26: 'A', 27: 'B', 28: 'C', 29: 'D', 30: 'E', 31: 'F', 32: 'G', 33: 'H', 34: 'I', 35: 'J', 36: 'K', 37: 'L', 38: 'M', 39: 'N', 40: 'O', 41: 'P', 42: 'Q', 43: 'R', 44: 'S', 45: 'T', 46: 'U', 47: 'V', 48: 'W', 49: 'X', 50: 'Y', 51: 'Z'}
>>> merge()
{}

It works for arbitrary number of dictionary arguments. Were there any duplicate keys in those dictionary, the key from the rightmost dictionary in the argument list wins.