Accessing python dict using nested key lookup string

Question

I am looking to create a simple nested \"lookup\" mechanism in python, and wanted to make sure there wasn\'t already something somewhere hidden in the vast libraries in pyth

Answer 1

There's nothing in the standard library for this purpose, but it is rather easy to code this yourself:

>>> key = "root.secondary.user2"
>>> reduce(dict.get, key.split("."), my_dict)
{'age': 25, 'name': 'fred'}

This exploits the fact that the look-up for the key k in the dictionary d can be written as dict.get(d, k). Applying this iteratively using reduce() leads to the desired result.

Edit: For completeness three functions to get, set or delete dictionary keys using this method:

def get_key(my_dict, key):
    return reduce(dict.get, key.split("."), my_dict)

def set_key(my_dict, key, value):
    key = key.split(".")
    my_dict = reduce(dict.get, key[:-1], my_dict)
    my_dict[key[-1]] = value

def del_key(my_dict, key):
    key = key.split(".")
    my_dict = reduce(dict.get, key[:-1], my_dict)
    del my_dict[key[-1]]