CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythondictionary
Debug255
Debug255

Reputation: 335

Import a file as a dict() in Python 3

I have a file I was playing around with to see if I can import it and convert it to a Python dictionary.

It is the default pyenv.cfg file in venv. It reads:

home = C:\Users\nope\AppData\Local\Continuum\anaconda3
include-system-site-packages = false
version = 3.6.4

I tried using:

with open(file, mode='r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    new_f = f.read().replace('=', ':')
    d = dict(new_f)

This tells me I don't have enough arguments for dict(). It expects 2. I'm familiar with using dict(zip(list_1, list_2)) to create a dictionary. I'm not familiar with opening a file and creating one.

I'm looking for a very simply way to do this. I did some research with re and it isn't turning out. Withing the with block, I ran a = f.read().replace(' = ', '\',\'') which returns:

home','C:\Users\nope\AppData\Local\Continuum\anaconda3
include-system-site-packages','false
version','3.6.4

Now I need to add a ' at the beginning and end of each line. Then I think I can use f.readlines() to create a list I can slice into keys and values. I know how to do this with vim or sed in Linux, but I'm trying to stay within Python.

Please help. Thank you!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2429

Answers (3)

Laurent H.
Laurent H.

Reputation: 6526

I can suggest you an alternative one-line style solution using dict comprehension: 

with open('pyenv.cfg') as f:
    d = {k:v for line in f for k,v in [line.strip().split(' = ')]}

print(d)
# {'home': 'C:\\Users\\nope\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3',
#  'include-system-site-packages': 'false',
#  'version': '3.6.4'}

Upvotes: 1

cdarke
cdarke

Reputation: 44354

Just treat it as normal data, don't try to convert it to python or you will end-up going down the horrible eval road. 

d = {}
file = 'pyenv.cfg'

with open(file) as f:
    for line in f:
        k, v = line.rstrip().split(' = ')
        d[k] = v

import pprint
pprint.pprint(d)

Gives:

{'home': 'C:\\Users\\nope\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3',
 'include-system-site-packages': 'false',
 'version': '3.6.4'}

Upvotes: 0

Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes

Reputation: 28370

I would suggest taking a look at the builtin configparser library which will return a dictionary like object.

Alternatively you can simply split the lines on =

my_dict = {}
for line in open(file_path).readlines():
    key, val = line.strip().split('=')  # Remove \n and split on =
    my_dict[key.strip()] = val.strip()  # Remove trailing leading spaces use
    # Note that vals will all be strings you may need to convert type for some

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions