python quickest way to merge dictionaries based on key match

Question

I have 2 lists of dictionaries. List A is 34,000 long, list B is 650,000 long. I am essentially inserting all the List B dicts into the List A dicts based on a key match.

Answer 1

I'd convert ListA and ListB into dictionaries instead, dictionaries with ID as the key. Then it is a simple matter to append data using python's quick dictionary lookups:

from collections import defaultdict

class thingdict(dict):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        things = []
        super(thingdict,self).__init__(*args, things=things, **kwargs)

A = defaultdict(thingdict)
A[1] = defaultdict(list)
A[2] = defaultdict(list, things=[6])  # with some dummy data
A[3] = defaultdict(list, things=[7])

B = {1: 5, 2: 6, 3: 7, 4: 8, 5: 9}

for k, v in B.items():
    # print k,v
    A[k]['things'].append(v)

print A
print B

This returns:

defaultdict(, {
    1: defaultdict(, {'things': [5]}),
    2: defaultdict(, {'things': [6, 6]}),
    3: defaultdict(, {'things': [7, 7]}),
    4: {'things': [8]},
    5: {'things': [9]}
})
{1: 5, 2: 6, 3: 7, 4: 8, 5: 9}