Generic way to create nested dictionary from flat list in python

Question

I am looking for the simplest generic way to convert this python list:

x = [
        {"foo":"A", "bar":"R", "baz":"X"},
        {"foo":"A", "bar":"R", "baz":"Y"},
        {"foo":"B", "bar":"S", "baz":"X"},
        {"foo":"A", "bar":"S", "baz":"Y"},
        {"foo":"C", "bar":"R", "baz":"Y"},
    ]

into:

foos = [ 
         {"foo":"A", "bars":[
                               {"bar":"R", "bazs":[ {"baz":"X"},{"baz":"Y"} ] },
                               {"bar":"S", "bazs":[ {"baz":"Y"} ] },
                            ]
         },
         {"foo":"B", "bars":[
                               {"bar":"S", "bazs":[ {"baz":"X"} ] },
                            ]
         },
         {"foo":"C", "bars":[
                               {"bar":"R", "bazs":[ {"baz":"Y"} ] },
                            ]
         },
      ]

The combination "foo","bar","baz" is unique, and as you can see the list is not necessarily ordered by this key.

Answer 1

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from itertools import groupby
from pprint import pprint

x = [
        {"foo":"A", "bar":"R", "baz":"X"},
        {"foo":"A", "bar":"R", "baz":"Y"},
        {"foo":"B", "bar":"S", "baz":"X"},
        {"foo":"A", "bar":"S", "baz":"Y"},
        {"foo":"C", "bar":"R", "baz":"Y"},
    ]


def fun(x, l):
    ks = ['foo', 'bar', 'baz']
    kn = ks[l]
    kk = lambda i:i[kn]
    for k,g in groupby(sorted(x, key=kk), key=kk):
        kg = [dict((k,v) for k,v in i.items() if k!=kn) for i in g]
        d = {}
        d[kn] = k
        if l<len(ks)-1:
            d[ks[l+1]+'s'] = list(fun(kg, l+1))
        yield d

pprint(list(fun(x, 0)))

---

[{'bars': [{'bar': 'R', 'bazs': [{'baz': 'X'}, {'baz': 'Y'}]},
           {'bar': 'S', 'bazs': [{'baz': 'Y'}]}],
  'foo': 'A'},
 {'bars': [{'bar': 'S', 'bazs': [{'baz': 'X'}]}], 'foo': 'B'},
 {'bars': [{'bar': 'R', 'bazs': [{'baz': 'Y'}]}], 'foo': 'C'}]

---

note: dict is unordered! but it's the same as yours.