How do I traverse and search a python dictionary?

Question

I have nested dictionaries:

{\'key0\': {\'attrs\': {\'entity\': \'p\', \'hash\': \'34nj3h43b4n3\', \'id\': \'4130\'},
          u\'key1\': {\'attrs\': {\'ent         


        

Answer 1

This kind of problem is often better solved with proper class definitions, not generic dictionaries.

class ProperObject( object ):
    """A proper class definition for each "attr" dictionary."""
    def __init__( self, path, attrDict ):
        self.path= path
        self.__dict__.update( attrDict )
    def __str__( self ):
        return "path %r, entity %r, hash %r, id %r" % (
            self.path, self.entity, self.hash, self.id )

masterDict= {} 
def builder( path, element ):
    masterDict[path]= ProperObject( path, element )

# Use the Visitor to build ProperObjects for each "attr"
walkDict( myDict, builder )

# Now that we have a simple dictionary of Proper Objects, things are simple
for k,v in masterDict.items():
    if v.id == '4130-2-2':
        print v

Also, now that you have Proper Object definitions, you can do the following

# Create an "index" of your ProperObjects
import collections
byId= collections.defaultdict(list)
for k in masterDict:
    byId[masterDict[k].id].append( masterDict[k] )

# Look up a particular item in the index
print map( str, byId['4130-2-2'] )