text file into a nested python dictionary more than one variable

Question

I have a text file that is formatted as follows:

[one]
A = color
B = Petals
C = Junk

[two]
Z = 10
A = freq
corner = yes

[three]
D = code
status = 45

I'm trying to read this file into a nested dictionary so that it looks like this:

{'one':{'A':'color','B':'Petals','C':'Junk'},
{'two':{'Z':'10','A':'freq':'corner':'yes'},
{'three':{'D':'code','status':'45'}}

I tried

import re

ini_sections = []
ini_dict = {}
x = 0

with open(path,'r') as f:
    for line in f:
        re_found = re.findall('\[(.*?)\]',line)
        re_found = ''.join(re_found)
        ini_sections.append(re_found)

        try:
            if re_found:
                next_line = next(f)
                while re.findall('=',next_line):
                    key,value = next_line.rstrip('\n').split('=')
                    ini_dict.update({ini_sections[x]:{key.strip():value.strip()}})
                    next_line = next(f)
            x +=1
        except StopIteration:
            print("EOF!")

Output:

for key, value in ini_dict.items():
    print(key, value)

>>>one {'C':'Junk'}
   two {'corner':'yes'}
   three {'status':'45'}

But only the last items remain in the dictionary. Not sure why that is.

What have you tried, and what exactly is the problem with it? Have you tried e.g. docs.python.org/3/library/configparser.html? — jonrsharpe
– jonrsharpe, Commented Jan 20, 2020 at 22:40

Jongware · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-20 23:23:55Z

1

You don't need a separate ini_sections (you create them but you don't even iterate over each of them while printing). Create one ini_dict, which will contain the three main keys one, two, and three, each one with a value of a dict. The current dict's name will be re_found; update only that inside your loop.

Your original code, changed here and there:

import re
import pprint

ini_dict = {}
x = 0

with open('test.cfg','r') as f:
    for line in f:
        re_found = re.findall('\[(.*?)\]',line)
        re_found = ''.join(re_found)
        ini_dict[re_found] = dict()

        try:
            if re_found:
                next_line = next(f)
                while re.findall('=',next_line):
                    key,value = next_line.rstrip('\n').split('=')
                    ini_dict[re_found][key.strip()] = value.strip()
                    next_line = next(f)
        except StopIteration:
            print("EOF!")

pp = pprint.PrettyPrinter()
pp.pprint (ini_dict)

Result (indentation comes courtesy of prettyprint):

EOF!
{'one': {'A': 'color', 'B': 'Petals', 'C': 'Junk'},
 'three': {'D': 'code', 'status': '45'},
 'two': {'A': 'freq', 'Z': '10', 'corner': 'yes'}}

answered Jan 20, 2020 at 23:23

Jongware

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1 Comment

magicsword Over a year ago

That did it. Thanks!

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