Create nested dictionary from text file using Python 3

Question

This is my file: test.txt

Amy|Female|Desc1|12
John|Male|Desc2|10
Mike|Male|Desc3|18

I tried to create nested dictionary and it's not sucessful.

This is the output:

{'Amy': '12', 'John': '10', 'Mike': '18'}

This is my code:

import csv
with open('test.txt') as file:
    tsvfile = csv.reader(file, delimiter='|')
    d = {}

    for row in tsvfile:
        d[row[0]] = row[0] #this should be name
        d[row[0]] = row[1] #this should be gender
        d[row[0]] = row[3] #this should be desc
        d[row[0]] = row[3] #this should be age
    print(d)

My desired output as below but was not successful.

d={1{'Name':'Amy', 'Gender':'Female', 'Desc': 'Desc1', 'Age': '12'}
 2{'Name':'John', 'Gender':'Male', 'Desc': 'Desc2', 'Age': '10'}
 3{'Name':'Mike', 'Gender':'Male', 'Desc': 'Desc3', 'Age': '18'}}

and below (with name and age only

d1={1{'Name':'Amy','Age': '12'}
 2{'Name':'John', 'Age': '10'}
 3{'Name':'Mike', 'Age': '18'}}

Welcome to SO! I don't quite follow the desired output, which isn't valid Python syntax. If your dictionary keys are sequential integers 1, 2, 3, etc, I'd recommend using a plain old list. Can you clarify your expectations? Thanks. — ggorlen
– ggorlen, Commented Jun 22, 2019 at 7:08
the output should be a nested dictionary where the outer dictionary is the line number of text file and inner dictionary should be the key,value pair — Jenny
– Jenny, Commented Jun 22, 2019 at 7:20
Fair enough, but I'd still recommend using an array for that or at least updating the question to reflect the correct syntax of "1": {} (etc). — ggorlen
– ggorlen, Commented Jun 22, 2019 at 15:48

Xosrov · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-22 07:26:03Z

2

Here's how to do it without csv import, given the data format is constant:

fixed = {}
i = 1
with open("test.txt", 'r') as f:
    for line in f:
        listDetails = line.strip().split('|')
        fixed[i] = {"Name": listDetails[0]}
        fixed[i].update({"Sex": listDetails[1]})
        fixed[i].update({"Description": listDetails[2]})
        fixed[i].update({"Age": listDetails[3]})
        i+=1
print(fixed)

This should turn

Amy|Female|Desc1|12 
John|Male|Desc2|10 
Mike|Male|Desc3|18

To

{1: {'Name': 'Amy', 'Sex': 'Female', 'Description': 'Desc1', 'Age': '12'}, 2: {'Name': 'John', 'Sex': 'Male', 'Description': 'Desc2', 'Age': '10'}, 3: {'Name': 'Mike', 'Sex': 'Male', 'Description': 'Desc3', 'Age': '18'}}

Edit: Just as Nakor said though, it doesn't really make sense to make a dict of dicts here, just posted this if you really need to make it a dict.

answered Jun 22, 2019 at 7:26

Xosrov

7295 silver badges24 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Jenny Over a year ago

This works. Thank you. I need nested dictionary basically to track item line number

Rahul charan · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-22 07:26:49Z

1

1) Nested Dictionary, I have made some changes in the same code, it may help you.

import csv
with open('hello.txt') as file:
tsvfile = csv.reader(file, delimiter='|')
final_dict = {}
counter = 1
for row in tsvfile:
    d = {}
    d['Name'] = row[0] #this should be name
    d['Gender'] = row[1] #this should be gender
    d['Desc'] = row[2] #this should be desc
    d['Age'] = row[3] #this should be age
    final_dict[counter] = d
    counter+=1
print(final_dict)

answered Jun 22, 2019 at 7:26

Rahul charan

8559 silver badges17 bronze badges

Comments

Nakor · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-22 07:26:52Z

1

Your desired output looks more like a list of dictionaries. In this case, I would just modify your code like this:

import csv
with open('test.txt') as file:
    tsvfile = csv.reader(file, delimiter='|')
    d = []

    for row in tsvfile:
        entry = {
          'Name': row[0],
          'Gender': row[1],
          'Desc': row[2],
        }
        d.append(entry)
    print(d)

Output:

[{'Name': 'Amy', 'Gender': 'Female', 'Desc': 'Desc1'}, 
 {'Name': 'John', 'Gender': 'Male', 'Desc': 'Desc2'}, 
 {'Name': 'Mike', 'Gender': 'Male', 'Desc': 'Desc3'}]

You can even write the loop in a more compact way like this:

keys = ["Name","Gender","Desc"]
for row in tsvfile:
    entry = { key: value for (key,value) in zip(keys,row) }
    d.append(entry)

EDIT: If you want a dictionary with the line number as keys, you can do:

import csv
with open('test.txt') as file:
    tsvfile = csv.reader(file, delimiter='|')
    d = {}
    keys = ["Name","Gender","Desc"]

    for i,row in enumerate(tsvfile):
        entry = {
          'Name': row[0],
          'Gender': row[1],
          'Desc': row[2],
        }
        d[i+1] = entry
    print(d)

edited Jun 22, 2019 at 7:26

answered Jun 22, 2019 at 7:12

Nakor

1,5142 gold badges14 silver badges25 bronze badges

2 Comments

Jenny Over a year ago

Thanks. Actually desired output is a nested dictionary where the outer is the line number of the text file.

Nakor Over a year ago

Unless you have some empty lines, that what a list does since for every line you get a new entry. However, if you really want a dictionary with lines, then you can simply enumerate (see my edit)

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Create nested dictionary from text file using Python 3

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related