Convert nested Python dict to object?

Question

I'm searching for an elegant way to get data using attribute access on a dict with some nested dicts and lists (i.e. javascript-style object syntax).

For example:

>>> d = {'a': 1, 'b': {'c': 2}, 'd': ["hi", {'foo': "bar"}]}

Should be accessible in this way:

>>> x = dict2obj(d)
>>> x.a
1
>>> x.b.c
2
>>> x.d[1].foo
bar

I think, this is not possible without recursion, but what would be a nice way to get an object style for dicts?

Answer 1

This should get your started:

class dict2obj(object):
    def __init__(self, d):
        self.__dict__['d'] = d

    def __getattr__(self, key):
        value = self.__dict__['d'][key]
        if type(value) == type({}):
            return dict2obj(value)

        return value

d = {'a': 1, 'b': {'c': 2}, 'd': ["hi", {'foo': "bar"}]}

x = dict2obj(d)
print x.a
print x.b.c
print x.d[1].foo

It doesn't work for lists, yet. You'll have to wrap the lists in a UserList and overload __getitem__ to wrap dicts.

Answer 2

class Struct(dict):
    def __getattr__(self, name):
        try:
            return self[name]
        except KeyError:
            raise AttributeError(name)

    def __setattr__(self, name, value):
        self[name] = value

    def copy(self):
        return Struct(dict.copy(self))

Usage:

points = Struct(x=1, y=2)
# Changing
points['x'] = 2
points.y = 1
# Accessing
points['x'], points.x, points.get('x') # 2 2 2
points['y'], points.y, points.get('y') # 1 1 1
# Accessing inexistent keys/attrs 
points['z'] # KeyError: z
points.z # AttributeError: z
# Copying
points_copy = points.copy()
points.x = 2
points_copy.x # 1

Answer 3

My dictionary is of this format:

addr_bk = {
    'person': [
        {'name': 'Andrew', 'id': 123, 'email': '[e-mail]',
         'phone': [{'type': 2, 'number': '633311122'},
                   {'type': 0, 'number': '97788665'}]
        },
        {'name': 'Tom', 'id': 456,
         'phone': [{'type': 0, 'number': '91122334'}]}, 
        {'name': 'Jack', 'id': 7788, 'email': '[e-mail]'}
    ]
}

As can be seen, I have nested dictionaries and list of dicts. This is because the addr_bk was decoded from protocol buffer data that converted to a python dict using lwpb.codec. There are optional field (e.g. email => where key may be unavailable) and repeated field (e.g. phone => converted to list of dict).

I tried all the above proposed solutions. Some doesn't handle the nested dictionaries well. Others cannot print the object details easily.

Only the solution, dict2obj(dict) by Dawie Strauss, works best.

I have enhanced it a little to handle when the key cannot be found:

# Work the best, with nested dictionaries & lists! :)
# Able to print out all items.
class dict2obj_new(dict):
    def __init__(self, dict_):
        super(dict2obj_new, self).__init__(dict_)
        for key in self:
            item = self[key]
            if isinstance(item, list):
                for idx, it in enumerate(item):
                    if isinstance(it, dict):
                        item[idx] = dict2obj_new(it)
            elif isinstance(item, dict):
                self[key] = dict2obj_new(item)

    def __getattr__(self, key):
        # Enhanced to handle key not found.
        if self.has_key(key):
            return self[key]
        else:
            return None

Then, I tested it with:

# Testing...
ab = dict2obj_new(addr_bk)

for person in ab.person:
  print "Person ID:", person.id
  print "  Name:", person.name
  # Check if optional field is available before printing.
  if person.email:
    print "  E-mail address:", person.email

  # Check if optional field is available before printing.
  if person.phone:
    for phone_number in person.phone:
      if phone_number.type == codec.enums.PhoneType.MOBILE:
        print "  Mobile phone #:",
      elif phone_number.type == codec.enums.PhoneType.HOME:
        print "  Home phone #:",
      else:
        print "  Work phone #:",
      print phone_number.number

Answer 4

What about just assigning your dict to the __dict__ of an empty object?

class Object:
    """If your dict is "flat", this is a simple way to create an object from a dict

    >>> obj = Object()
    >>> obj.__dict__ = d
    >>> d.a
    1
    """
    pass

Of course this fails on your nested dict example unless you walk the dict recursively:

# For a nested dict, you need to recursively update __dict__
def dict2obj(d):
    """Convert a dict to an object

    >>> d = {'a': 1, 'b': {'c': 2}, 'd': ["hi", {'foo': "bar"}]}
    >>> obj = dict2obj(d)
    >>> obj.b.c
    2
    >>> obj.d
    ["hi", {'foo': "bar"}]
    """
    try:
        d = dict(d)
    except (TypeError, ValueError):
        return d
    obj = Object()
    for k, v in d.iteritems():
        obj.__dict__[k] = dict2obj(v)
    return obj

And your example list element was probably meant to be a Mapping, a list of (key, value) pairs like this:

>>> d = {'a': 1, 'b': {'c': 2}, 'd': [("hi", {'foo': "bar"})]}
>>> obj = dict2obj(d)
>>> obj.d.hi.foo
"bar"

Answer 5

x.__dict__.update(d) should do fine.

Answer 6

Here's another implementation:

class DictObj(object):
    def __init__(self, d):
        self.__dict__ = d

def dict_to_obj(d):
    if isinstance(d, (list, tuple)): return map(dict_to_obj, d)
    elif not isinstance(d, dict): return d
    return DictObj(dict((k, dict_to_obj(v)) for (k,v) in d.iteritems()))

[Edit] Missed bit about also handling dicts within lists, not just other dicts. Added fix.