syntax for creating a dictionary into another dictionary in python [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
syntax to insert one list into another list in python

How could be the syntax for creating a dictionary into another dictionary in python

Answer 1

You can declare a dictionary inside a dictionary by nesting the {} containers:

d = {'dict1': {'foo': 1, 'bar': 2}, 'dict2': {'baz': 3, 'quux': 4}}

And then you can access the elements using the [] syntax:

print d['dict1']           # {'foo': 1, 'bar': 2}
print d['dict1']['foo']    # 1
print d['dict2']['quux']   # 4

Given the above, if you want to add another dictionary to the dictionary, it can be done like so:

d['dict3'] = {'spam': 5, 'ham': 6}

or if you prefer to add items to the internal dictionary one by one:

d['dict4'] = {}
d['dict4']['king'] = 7
d['dict4']['queen'] = 8

Answer 2

dict1 = {}

dict1['dict2'] = {}

print dict1

>>> {'dict2': {},}

this is commonly known as nesting iterators into other iterators I think

Answer 3

Do you want to insert one dictionary into the other, as one of its elements, or do you want to reference the values of one dictionary from the keys of another?

Previous answers have already covered the first case, where you are creating a dictionary within another dictionary.

To re-reference the values of one dictionary into another, you can use dict.update:

>>> d1 = {1: [1]}
>>> d2 = {2: [2]}
>>> d1.update(d2)
>>> d1
{1: [1], 2: [2]}

A change to a value that's present in both dictionaries will be visible in both:

>>> d1[2].append('appended')
>>> d1
{1: [1], 2: [2, 'appended']}
>>> d2
{2: [2, 'appended']}

This is the same as copying the value over or making a new dictionary with it, i.e.

>>> d3 = {1: d1[1]}
>>> d3[1].append('appended from d3')
>>> d1[1]
[1, 'appended from d3']