Python dictionary formating
- by None
I made a python function to convert dictionaries to formatted strings. My goal was to have a function take a dictionary for input and turn it into a string that looked good. For example, something like "{'text':'Hello', 'blah':{'hi':'hello','hello':'hi'}}" would be turned into this:
text:
Hello
blah:
hi:
hello
hello:
hi
This is the code I wrote:
indent = 0
def format_dict(d):
global indent
res = ""
for key in d:
res += (" " * indent) + key + ":\n"
if not type(d[key]) == type({}):
res += (" " * (indent + 1)) + d[key] + "\n"
else:
indent += 1
res += format_dict(d[key])
indent -= 1
return res
#test
print format_dict({'key with text content':'some text',
'key with dict content':
{'cheese': 'text', 'item':{'Blah': 'Hello'}}})
It works like a charm. It checks if the dictionary item is another dictionary, in which it process that, or something else, in which it would use that as the value. The problem is: I can't have a dictionary and a string together in a dictionary item. For example: if I wanted
blah:
hi
hello:
hello again
there'd be no way to do it. Is there some way I could have something like a list item in a dictionary. Something like this "{'blah':{'hi', 'hello':'hello again'}}"? And if you provide a solution could you tell me how I would need to change my code (if it did require changes).
Note: I am using python 2.5
