Convert Python dict to object

Question

Hi,

I'm searching for an elegant way to convert a normal Python dict with some nested dicts to an object.

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 objectstyle for dicts?

Thank you in advance, cheers Marc

Answer 1

x = type('new_dict', (object,), d)

then add recursion to this and you're done.

edit this is how I'd implement it:

>>> d
{'a': 1, 'b': {'c': 2}, 'd': ['hi', {'foo': 'bar'}]}
>>> def obj_dic(d):
    top = type('new', (object,), d)
    seqs = tuple, list, set, frozenset
    for i, j in d.items():
     if isinstance(j, dict):
         setattr(top, i, obj_dic(j))
     elif isinstance(j, seqs):
         setattr(top, i, 
          type(j)(obj_dic(sj) if isinstance(sj, dict) else sj for sj in j))
     else:
         setattr(top, i, j)
    return top

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

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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 4

>>> def dict2obj(d):
        if isinstance(d, list):
         d = [dict2obj(x) for x in d]
        if not isinstance(d, dict):
            return d
        class C(object):
         pass
        o = C()
        for k in d:
            o.__dict__[k] = dict2obj(d[k])
        return o


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

Answer 5

Let me explain a solution I almost used some time ago. But first, the reason I did not is illustrated by the fact that the following code:

d = {'from': 1}
x = dict2obj(d)

print x.from

gives this error:

  File "test.py", line 20
    print x.from == 1
                ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Because "from" is a Python keyword there are certain dictionary keys you cannot allow.

---

Now my solution allows access to the dictionary items by using their names directly. But it also allows you to use "dictionary semantics". Here is the code with example usage:

class dict2obj(dict):
    def __init__(self, dict_):
        super(dict2obj, 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(it)
            elif isinstance(item, dict):
                self[key] = dict2obj(item)

    def __getattr__(self, key):
        return self[key]

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

x = dict2obj(d)

assert x.a == x['a'] == 1
assert x.b.c == x['b']['c'] == 2
assert x.d[1].foo == x['d'][1]['foo'] == "bar"

Answer 6

class Struct:
    def __init__(self, **entries): 
        self.__dict__.update(entries)

Then, you can use:

>>> args = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
>>> s = Struct(**args)
>>> s
<__main__.Struct instance at 0x01D6A738>
>>> s.a
1
>>> s.b
2

Answer 7

class obj(object):
    def __init__(self, d):
        for a, b in d.items():
            if isinstance(b, (list, tuple)):
               setattr(self, a, [obj(x) if isinstance(x, dict) else x for x in b])
            else:
               setattr(self, a, obj(b) if isinstance(b, dict) else b)


>>> x = obj(d)
>>> x.b.c
2
>>> x.d[1].foo
'bar'

Answer 8

thank you for all your suggestions. i've put the together for comparison and benchmarked them. you can find the results here:

http://pastebin.org/10514

Answer 9

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.

Answer 10

Here is another way to implement SilentGhost's original suggestion:

def dict2obj(d):
  if isinstance(d, dict):
    n = {}
    for item in d:
      if isinstance(d[item], dict):
        n[item] = dict2obj(d[item])
      elif isinstance(d[item], (list, tuple)):
        n[item] = [dict2obj(elem) for elem in d[item]]
      else:
        n[item] = d[item]
    return type('obj_from_dict', (object,), n)
  else:
    return d

Answer 11

Building off what i did for this question:

class data(object):
    def __init__(self,*args,**argd):
        self.__dict__.update(dict(*args,**argd))

def makedata(d):
    d2 = {}
    for n in d:
        d2[n] = trydata(d[n])
    return data(d2)

def trydata(o):
    if isinstance(o,dict):
        return makedata(o)
    elif isinstance(o,list):
        return [trydata(i) for i in o]
    else:
        return o

You call makedata on the dictionary you want converted (or maybe trydata depending on what you expect as input) and it spits out a data object.

Notes:

• You can add elifs to trydata if you need more funtionality
• Obviously this won't work if you want x.a = {} or similar
• If you want a readonly version, use the class data from the original answer