Dotty-Dict

Info:Dictionary wrapper for quick access to deeply nested keys.
Author:Pawel Zadrozny @pawelzny <pawel.zny@gmail.com>
CI Status Documentation Status PyPI Repository Status Release Status Project Status Supported python versions Supported interpreters License

Features

  • Simple wrapper around python dictionary and dict like objects
  • Two wrappers with the same dict are considered equal
  • Access to deeply nested keys with dot notation: dot['deeply.nested.key']
  • Create, read, update and delete nested keys of any length
  • Expose all dictionary methods like .get, .pop, .keys and other
  • Access dicts in lists by index dot['parents.0.first_name']
  • key=value caching to speed up lookups and low down memory consumption
  • support for setting value in multidimensional lists
  • support for accessing lists with slices

Installation

pip install dotty-dict

TODO

Waiting for your feature requests ;)

Quick Example

Create new dotty using factory function.

>>> from dotty_dict import dotty
>>> dot = dotty({'plain': {'old': {'python': 'dictionary'}}})
>>> dot['plain.old']
{'python': 'dictionary'}

You can start with empty dotty

>>> from dotty_dict import dotty
>>> dot = dotty()
>>> dot['very.deeply.nested.thing'] = 'spam'
>>> dot
Dotty(dictionary={'very': {'deeply': {'nested': {'thing': 'spam'}}}}, separator='.', esc_char='\\')

>>> dot['very.deeply.spam'] = 'indeed'
>>> dot
Dotty(dictionary={'very': {'deeply': {'nested': {'thing': 'spam'}, 'spam': 'indeed'}}}, separator='.', esc_char='\\')

>>> del dot['very.deeply.nested']
>>> dot
Dotty(dictionary={'very': {'deeply': {'spam': 'indeed'}}}, separator='.', esc_char='\\')

>>> dot.get('very.not_existing.key')
None

NOTE: Using integer in dictionary keys will be treated as embedded list index.

Install for development

Install dev dependencies

$ make install

Testing

$ make test

Or full tests with TOX:

$ make test-all

Limitations

In some very rare cases dotty may not work properly.

  • When nested dictionary has two keys of different type, but with the same value. In that case dotty will return dict or list under random key with passed value.
  • Keys in dictionary may not contain dots. If you need to use dots, please specify dotty with custom separator.
  • Nested keys may not be bool type. Bool type keys are only supported when calling keys with type defined value (e.g. dot[True], dot[False]).