Python Best Way to construct Dictionary from Inputs

Question

I'm trying to construct a nested dictionary from user inputs. The only issue is, the user can opt to not enter some of these inputs. In these cases, I want the dictionary to completely exclude that field. For Instance:

ids = 1234
dmas = 5678

I would like the dictionary to look like this:

d = {profile:{"dma_targets":dmas, "id":ids}}

However, if user decides not to include certain input:

ids = None
dmas = 5678

I would like the dictionary to look like this:

d = {profile:{"dma_targets":dmas}}

I'm a bit stuck here, and it seems like a very simple thing, as it would be easy to do if I wanted a list instead of a dict. One of the problems I'm running into is:

x = "dma_targets":dmas

is not a valid object, so I'm having a hard time constructing the pieces of this, then adding them into the dictionary. Thanks so much!

`x = "dma_targets":dmas` is not valid input, but `x = {"dma_targets":dmas}` is... why not try that? I guess I'm not totally clear what you're trying to achieve. If you can get it into a list, why not convert the list to a dict? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4576115/python-list-to-dictionary — darthbith, Oct 25 '13 at 14:22

ojdo · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-25T23:13:49.707

6

How about a little dict comprehension?

fkeys = ['dma_targets', 'ids']
fvals = [5678, None]
d = {'profile': {k:v for (k,v) in zip(fkeys, fvals) if v is not None}}

which yields d as

{'profile': {'dma_targets': 5678}}

edited Oct 25 '13 at 23:13

answered Oct 25 '13 at 14:27

ojdo

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You'll want to change `if v` to `if v is not None` if 0 is a valid value. – Justin Oct 25 '13 at 14:30
This is perfect. It just completely slipped my mind to do this. – David Yang Oct 25 '13 at 14:49

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 25 '13 at 14:27

0

d = {profile:{}}
if ids:
    d['profile']['ids'] = ids
if dmas:
    d['profile']['dma_targets'] = dmas

answered Oct 25 '13 at 14:27

Pablo Díaz Ogni

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 25 '13 at 14:29

0

If I understand correctly you want a nested dictionary with different types (python allows you to do this).

from collections import defaultdict
d  = defaultdict(lambda: defaultdict(list))
d['a']['b'].append('bla')
d[15] = 15

answered Oct 25 '13 at 14:29

tk.

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Python Best Way to construct Dictionary from Inputs

3 Answers3