Recursively access dict via attributes as well as index access?

Below another implementation of a nested attribute dictionary (inspired by the answer of Curt Hagenlocher, stripped down to the essential):

class AttrDict(dict):
    """ Nested Attribute Dictionary

    A class to convert a nested Dictionary into an object with key-values
    accessible using attribute notation (AttrDict.attribute) in addition to
    key notation (Dict["key"]). This class recursively sets Dicts to objects,
    allowing you to recurse into nested dicts (like: AttrDict.attr.attr)
    """

    def __init__(self, mapping=None):
        super(AttrDict, self).__init__()
        if mapping is not None:
            for key, value in mapping.items():
                self.__setitem__(key, value)

    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
        if isinstance(value, dict):
            value = AttrDict(value)
        super(AttrDict, self).__setitem__(key, value)
        self.__dict__[key] = value  # for code completion in editors

    def __getattr__(self, item):
        try:
            return self.__getitem__(item)
        except KeyError:
            raise AttributeError(item)

    __setattr__ = __setitem__

This works in both Python 2 and 3:

life = AttrDict({'bigBang': {'stars': {'planets': {}}}})
life['bigBang']['stars']['planets'] = {'earth': {'singleCellLife': {}}}
life.bigBang.stars.planets.earth.multiCellLife = {'reptiles': {}, 'mammals': {}}
print(life.bigBang.stars.planets.earth)
# -> {'singleCellLife': {}, 'multiCellLife': {'mammals': {}, 'reptiles': {}}}

Converting KeyError into AttributeError in __getattr__ is required in Python3 such that hasattr works also in case the attribute is not found:

hasattr(life, 'parallelUniverse')
# --> False

There is a package doing exactly what you want and also something more and it is called Prodict.

from prodict import Prodict

life_dict = {'bigBang':
                {'stars':
                    {'planets': []}
                }
            }

life = Prodict.from_dict(life_dict)

print(life.bigBang.stars.planets)
# prints []

# you can even add new properties dynamically
life.bigBang.galaxies = []

PS: I'm the author of the Prodict.

Here is another solution:

from typing import Dict, Any

class PropertyTree: pass

def dict_to_prop_tree(yaml_config: Dict[str, Any]) -> PropertyTree:
    tree = PropertyTree()
    for key, value in yaml_config.items():
        if type(value) == dict:
            setattr(tree, key, dict_to_obj_tree(value))
        elif type(value) == list:
            setattr(tree, key, [dict_to_obj_tree(v) for v in value])
        else:
            setattr(tree, key, value)
    return tree

Then in the python console:

d={'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': {'d': 4, 'e': 5, 'f': {'g': 6}, 'h': {}, 'j': 7}}
tree=dict_to_prop_tree(d)
tree.a
tree.c.f.g

prints the correct values

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# _*_ coding: utf-8 _*_

# Author: Xingbang Jiang
# E-mail: [email protected]
# HomePage: http://www.xingbangsharing.tech

class Dotsdict(dict):
    def __init__(self, args, **kwargs):
        super(Dotsdict, self).__init__(args, **kwargs)
        for obj in [args, kwargs]:
            for k, v in obj.items():
                if isinstance(v, dict):
                    v = Dotsdict(v)
                self.__setitem__(k, v)

    def __setitem__(self, key, val):
        super(Dotsdict, self).__setitem__(key, val)
        # self.__dict__[key] = val

    def __delitem__(self, key):
        super(Dotsdict, self).__delitem__(key)
        # del self.__dict__[key]

    def __getitem__(self, key):
        return super(Dotsdict, self).__getitem__(key)

    def __missing__(self, key):
        dots = Dotsdict()
        self.__setitem__(key, dots)
        return dots

    __setattr__, __delattr__, __getattr__ = __setitem__, __delitem__, __getitem__

# ===================================================================


d = {'k': 'v', 'x': {'y': 'z', 'p': 'q', }, }
print(type(d))
print(d)

dd = Dotsdict(d, i='j')
print(type(dd))
print(dd)

print('========================================')

dd.a = 'b'
dd.x.m = 'n'
print(dd.x.y)

del dd.x['p']
print(dd)
print(len(dd))