How to pretty print nested dictionaries?

Question

How can I pretty print a dictionary with depth of ~4 in Python? I tried pretty printing with pprint(), but it did not work:

import pprint 
pp = pprint.PrettyPrinter(indent=4)
pp.pprint(mydict)

I simply want an indentation ("\t") for each nesting, so that I get something like this:

key1
    value1
    value2
    key2
       value1
       value2

etc.

How can I do this?

Answer 1

Here's something that will print any sort of nested dictionary, while keeping track of the "parent" dictionaries along the way.

dicList = list()

def prettierPrint(dic, dicList):
count = 0
for key, value in dic.iteritems():
    count+=1
    if str(value) == 'OrderedDict()':
        value = None
    if not isinstance(value, dict):
        print str(key) + ": " + str(value)
        print str(key) + ' was found in the following path:',
        print dicList
        print '\n'
    elif isinstance(value, dict):
        dicList.append(key)
        prettierPrint(value, dicList)
    if dicList:
         if count == len(dic):
             dicList.pop()
             count = 0

prettierPrint(dicExample, dicList)

This is a good starting point for printing according to different formats, like the one specified in OP. All you really need to do is operations around the Print blocks. Note that it looks to see if the value is 'OrderedDict()'. Depending on whether you're using something from Container datatypes Collections, you should make these sort of fail-safes so the elif block doesn't see it as an additional dictionary due to its name. As of now, an example dictionary like

example_dict = {'key1': 'value1',
            'key2': 'value2',
            'key3': {'key3a': 'value3a'},
            'key4': {'key4a': {'key4aa': 'value4aa',
                               'key4ab': 'value4ab',
                               'key4ac': 'value4ac'},
                     'key4b': 'value4b'}

will print

key3a: value3a
key3a was found in the following path: ['key3']

key2: value2
key2 was found in the following path: []

key1: value1
key1 was found in the following path: []

key4ab: value4ab
key4ab was found in the following path: ['key4', 'key4a']

key4ac: value4ac
key4ac was found in the following path: ['key4', 'key4a']

key4aa: value4aa
key4aa was found in the following path: ['key4', 'key4a']

key4b: value4b
key4b was found in the following path: ['key4']

~altering code to fit the question's format~

lastDict = list()
dicList = list()
def prettierPrint(dic, dicList):
    global lastDict
    count = 0
    for key, value in dic.iteritems():
        count+=1
        if str(value) == 'OrderedDict()':
            value = None
        if not isinstance(value, dict):
            if lastDict == dicList:
                sameParents = True
            else:
                sameParents = False

            if dicList and sameParents is not True:
                spacing = ' ' * len(str(dicList))
                print dicList
                print spacing,
                print str(value)

            if dicList and sameParents is True:
                print spacing,
                print str(value)
            lastDict = list(dicList)

        elif isinstance(value, dict):
            dicList.append(key)
            prettierPrint(value, dicList)

        if dicList:
             if count == len(dic):
                 dicList.pop()
                 count = 0

Using the same example code, it will print the following:

['key3']
         value3a
['key4', 'key4a']
                  value4ab
                  value4ac
                  value4aa
['key4']
         value4b

This isn't exactly what is requested in OP. The difference is that a parent^n is still printed, instead of being absent and replaced with white-space. To get to OP's format, you'll need to do something like the following: iteratively compare dicList with the lastDict. You can do this by making a new dictionary and copying dicList's content to it, checking if i in the copied dictionary is the same as i in lastDict, and -- if it is -- writing whitespace to that i position using the string multiplier function.

Answer 2

I wrote this simple code to print the general structure of a json object in Python.

def getstructure(data, tab = 0):
    if type(data) is dict:
        print ' '*tab + '{' 
        for key in data:
            print ' '*tab + '  ' + key + ':'
            getstructure(data[key], tab+4)
        print ' '*tab + '}'         
    elif type(data) is list and len(data) > 0:
        print ' '*tab + '['
        getstructure(data[0], tab+4)
        print ' '*tab + '  ...'
        print ' '*tab + ']'

the result for the following data

a = {'list':['a','b',1,2],'dict':{'a':1,2:'b'},'tuple':('a','b',1,2),'function':'p','unicode':u'\xa7',("tuple","key"):"valid"}
getstructure(a)

is very compact and looks like this:

{
  function:
  tuple:
  list:
    [
      ...
    ]
  dict:
    {
      a:
      2:
    }
  unicode:
  ('tuple', 'key'):
}

Answer 3

I took sth's answer and modified it slightly to fit my needs of a nested dictionaries and lists:

def pretty(d, indent=0):
    if isinstance(d, dict):
        for key, value in d.iteritems():
            print '\t' * indent + str(key)
            if isinstance(value, dict) or isinstance(value, list):
                pretty(value, indent+1)
            else:
                print '\t' * (indent+1) + str(value)
    elif isinstance(d, list):
        for item in d:
            if isinstance(item, dict) or isinstance(item, list):
                pretty(item, indent+1)
            else:
                print '\t' * (indent+1) + str(item)
    else:
        pass

Which then gives me output like:

>>> 
xs:schema
    @xmlns:xs
        http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema
    xs:redefine
        @schemaLocation
            base.xsd
        xs:complexType
            @name
                Extension
            xs:complexContent
                xs:restriction
                    @base
                        Extension
                    xs:sequence
                        xs:element
                            @name
                                Policy
                            @minOccurs
                                1
                            xs:complexType
                                xs:sequence
                                    xs:element
                                            ...

Answer 4

As others have posted, you can use recursion/dfs to print the nested dictionary data and call recursively if it is a dictionary; otherwise print the data.

def print_json(data):
    if type(data) == dict:
            for k, v in data.items():
                    print k
                    print_json(v)
    else:
            print data

Answer 5

Here's a function I wrote based on what sth's comment. It's works the same as json.dumps with indent, but I'm using tabs instead of space for indents. In Python 3.2+ you can specify indent to be a '\t' directly, but not in 2.7.

def pretty_dict(d):
    def pretty(d, indent):
        for i, (key, value) in enumerate(d.iteritems()):
            if isinstance(value, dict):
                print '{0}"{1}": {{'.format( '\t' * indent, str(key))
                pretty(value, indent+1)
                if i == len(d)-1:
                    print '{0}}}'.format( '\t' * indent)
                else:
                    print '{0}}},'.format( '\t' * indent)
            else:
                if i == len(d)-1:
                    print '{0}"{1}": "{2}"'.format( '\t' * indent, str(key), value)
                else:
                    print '{0}"{1}": "{2}",'.format( '\t' * indent, str(key), value)
    print '{'
    pretty(d,indent=1)
    print '}'

Ex:

>>> dict_var = {'a':2, 'b':{'x':3, 'y':{'t1': 4, 't2':5}}}
>>> pretty_dict(dict_var)
{
    "a": "2",
    "b": {
        "y": {
            "t2": "5",
            "t1": "4"
        },
        "x": "3"
    }
}

Answer 6

Sth, i sink that's pretty ;)

def pretty(d, indent=0):
    for key, value in d.iteritems():
        if isinstance(value, dict):
            print '\t' * indent + (("%30s: {\n") % str(key).upper())
            pretty(value, indent+1)
            print '\t' * indent + ' ' * 32 + ('} # end of %s #\n' % str(key).upper())
        elif isinstance(value, list):
            for val in value:
                print '\t' * indent + (("%30s: [\n") % str(key).upper())
                pretty(val, indent+1)
                print '\t' * indent + ' ' * 32 + ('] # end of %s #\n' % str(key).upper())
        else:
            print '\t' * indent + (("%30s: %s") % (str(key).upper(),str(value)))