Python - Break String into nested dictionary keys

Question

I have a string: candidate__name__first_name. I want to convert it into a nested dictionary of the form:

{ 
  candidate: {
    name: {
      first_name: 'MyName'
    }
  }
}

What would be the best way to do this?

Answer 1

How about this:

recursive_key = 'candidate__name__first_name'
value = 'MyName'
for key in reversed(recursive_key.split('__')):
    value = {key: value}
print(value)