Nested dictionaries in Python with implicit creation of nonexistent intermediate containers?

Question

I want to create a polymorphic structure that can be created on the fly with minimal typing effort and be very readable. For instance:

a.b = 1
a.c.d = 2
a.c.e = 3
a.f.g.a.b.c.d = cucu
a.aaa = bau

I do not want to create an intermediate container, for example:

a.c = subobject()
a.c.d = 2
a.c.e = 3

My question is like this:

What is the best way to implement nested dictionaries?

But I am not happy with the decision there, because I think there is a mistake:
Elements will be created even when you do not want to: suppose you want to compare 2 polymorphic structures: it will create in the 2nd structure any attribute that exists in first and just checked in another. eg:

a = {1:2, 3: 4}
b = {5:6}

# now compare them:

if b[1] == a[1]
    # whoops, we just created b[1] = {} !

I also want to get the simplest possible notation

a.b.c.d = 1
    # neat
a[b][c][d] = 1
    # yuck

... , , , : dir() , " "... , :

class KeyList(object):
    def __setattr__(self, name, value):
        print "__setattr__ Name:", name, "value:", value
        object.__setattr__(self, name, value)
    def __getattribute__(self, name):
        print "__getattribute__ called for:", name
        return object.__getattribute__(self, name)
    def __getattr__(self, name):
        print "__getattr__ Name:", name
        try:
            ret = object.__getattribute__(self, name)
        except AttributeError:
            print "__getattr__ not found, creating..."
            object.__setattr__(self, name, KeyList())
            ret = object.__getattribute__(self, name)
        return ret

>>> cucu = KeyList()
>>> dir(cucu)
__getattribute__ called for: __dict__
__getattribute__ called for: __members__
__getattr__ Name: __members__
__getattr__ not found, creating...
__getattribute__ called for: __methods__
__getattr__ Name: __methods__
__getattr__ not found, creating...
__getattribute__ called for: __class__

, !

p.s: , :

class KeyList(dict):
    def keylset(self, path, value):
        attr = self
        path_elements = path.split('.')
        for i in path_elements[:-1]:
            try:
                attr = attr[i]
            except KeyError:
                attr[i] = KeyList()
                attr = attr[i]
        attr[path_elements[-1]] = value

# test
>>> a = KeyList()
>>> a.keylset("a.b.d.e", "ferfr")
>>> a.keylset("a.b.d", {})
>>> a
{'a': {'b': {'d': {}}}}

# shallow copy
>>> b = copy.copy(a)
>>> b
{'a': {'b': {'d': {}}}}
>>> b.keylset("a.b.d", 3)
>>> b
{'a': {'b': {'d': 3}}}
>>> a
{'a': {'b': {'d': 3}}}

# complete copy
>>> a.keylset("a.b.d", 2)
>>> a
{'a': {'b': {'d': 2}}}
>>> b
{'a': {'b': {'d': 2}}}
>>> b = copy.deepcopy(a)
>>> b.keylset("a.b.d", 4)
>>> b
{'a': {'b': {'d': 4}}}
>>> a
{'a': {'b': {'d': 2}}}

Answer 1

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Answer 2

- , , , , Ian Bicking formencode variabledecode . - , , .
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:

>>> from formencode.variabledecode import variable_decode, variable_encode
>>>
>>> d={'a.b.c.d.e': 1}
>>> variable_decode(d)
{'a': {'b': {'c': {'d': {'e': 1}}}}}
>>>
>>> d['a.b.x'] = 3
>>> variable_decode(d)
{'a': {'b': {'c': {'d': {'e': 1}}, 'x': 3}}}
>>>
>>> d2 = variable_decode(d)
>>> variable_encode(d2) == d
True