Read all the contents in ini file into dictionary with Python

Question

Normally, I code as follows for getting a particular item in a variable as follows

try:
    config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
    config.read(self.iniPath         


        

Answer 1

The instance data for ConfigParser is stored internally as a nested dict. Instead of recreating it, you could just copy it.

>>> import ConfigParser
>>> p = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
>>> p.read("sample_config.ini")
['sample_config.ini']
>>> p.__dict__
{'_defaults': {}, '_sections': {'A': {'y': '2', '__name__': 'A', 'z': '3', 'x': '1'}, 'B':         {'y': '2', '__name__': 'B', 'z': '3', 'x': '1'}}, '_dict': }
>>> d = p.__dict__['_sections'].copy()
>>> d
{'A': {'y': '2', '__name__': 'A', 'z': '3', 'x': '1'}, 'B': {'y': '2', '__name__': 'B', 'z': '3', 'x': '1'}}

Edit:

Alex Martelli's solution is cleaner, more robust, and prettier. While this was the accepted answer, I'd suggest using his approach instead. See his comment to this solution for more info.