I have separated this out into two steps. In the first step, the query string is broken down into a series of instructions. This way the problem is decoupled, we can view the instructions before running them, and there is no need for recursive calls.
def build_instructions(obj, q):
"""
Breaks down a query string into a series of actionable instructions.
Each instruction is a (_type, arg) tuple.
arg -- The key used for the __getitem__ or __setitem__ call on
the current object.
_type -- Used to determine the data type for the value of
obj.__getitem__(arg)
If a key/index is missing, _type is used to initialize an empty value.
In this way _type provides the ability to
"""
arg = []
_type = None
instructions = []
for i, ch in enumerate(q):
if ch == "[":
# Begin list query
if _type is not None:
arg = "".join(arg)
if _type == list and arg.isalpha():
_type = dict
instructions.append((_type, arg))
_type, arg = None, []
_type = list
elif ch == ".":
# Begin dict query
if _type is not None:
arg = "".join(arg)
if _type == list and arg.isalpha():
_type = dict
instructions.append((_type, arg))
_type, arg = None, []
_type = dict
elif ch.isalnum():
if i == 0:
# Query begins with alphanum, assume dict access
_type = type(obj)
# Fill out args
arg.append(ch)
else:
TypeError("Unrecognized character: {}".format(ch))
if _type is not None:
# Finish up last query
instructions.append((_type, "".join(arg)))
return instructions
For your example
>>> x = {"a": "stuff"}
>>> print(build_instructions(x, "f[0].a"))
[(<type 'dict'>, 'f'), (<type 'list'>, '0'), (<type 'dict'>, 'a')]
The expected return value is simply the _type
(first item) of the next tuple in the instructions. This is very important because it allows us to correctly initialize/reconstruct missing keys.
This means that our first instruction operates on a dict
, either sets or gets the key 'f'
, and is expected to return a list
. Similarly, our second instruction operates on a list
, either sets or gets the index 0
and is expected to return a dict
.
Now let's create our _setattr
function. This gets the proper instructions and goes through them, creating key-value pairs as necessary. Finally, it also sets the val
we give it.
def _setattr(obj, query, val):
"""
This is a special setattr function that will take in a string query,
interpret it, add the appropriate data structure to obj, and set val.
We only define two actions that are available in our query string:
.x -- dict.__setitem__(x, ...)
[x] -- list.__setitem__(x, ...) OR dict.__setitem__(x, ...)
the calling context determines how this is interpreted.
"""
instructions = build_instructions(obj, query)
for i, (_, arg) in enumerate(instructions[:-1]):
_type = instructions[i + 1][0]
obj = _set(obj, _type, arg)
_type, arg = instructions[-1]
_set(obj, _type, arg, val)
def _set(obj, _type, arg, val=None):
"""
Helper function for calling obj.__setitem__(arg, val or _type()).
"""
if val is not None:
# Time to set our value
_type = type(val)
if isinstance(obj, dict):
if arg not in obj:
# If key isn't in obj, initialize it with _type()
# or set it with val
obj[arg] = (_type() if val is None else val)
obj = obj[arg]
elif isinstance(obj, list):
n = len(obj)
arg = int(arg)
if n > arg:
obj[arg] = (_type() if val is None else val)
else:
# Need to amplify our list, initialize empty values with _type()
obj.extend([_type() for x in range(arg - n + 1)])
obj = obj[arg]
return obj
And just because we can, here's a _getattr
function.
def _getattr(obj, query):
"""
Very similar to _setattr. Instead of setting attributes they will be
returned. As expected, an error will be raised if a __getitem__ call
fails.
"""
instructions = build_instructions(obj, query)
for i, (_, arg) in enumerate(instructions[:-1]):
_type = instructions[i + 1][0]
obj = _get(obj, _type, arg)
_type, arg = instructions[-1]
return _get(obj, _type, arg)
def _get(obj, _type, arg):
"""
Helper function for calling obj.__getitem__(arg).
"""
if isinstance(obj, dict):
obj = obj[arg]
elif isinstance(obj, list):
arg = int(arg)
obj = obj[arg]
return obj
In action:
>>> x = {"a": "stuff"}
>>> _setattr(x, "f[0].a", "test")
>>> print x
{'a': 'stuff', 'f': [{'a': 'test'}]}
>>> print _getattr(x, "f[0].a")
"test"
>>> x = ["one", "two"]
>>> _setattr(x, "3[0].a", "test")
>>> print x
['one', 'two', [], [{'a': 'test'}]]
>>> print _getattr(x, "3[0].a")
"test"
Now for some cool stuff. Unlike python, our _setattr
function can set unhashable dict
keys.
x = []
_setattr(x, "1.4", "asdf")
print x
[{}, {'4': 'asdf'}] # A list, which isn't hashable
>>> y = {"a": "stuff"}
>>> _setattr(y, "f[1.4]", "test") # We're indexing f with 1.4, which is a list!
>>> print y
{'a': 'stuff', 'f': [{}, {'4': 'test'}]}
>>> print _getattr(y, "f[1.4]") # Works for _getattr too
"test"
We aren't really using unhashable dict
keys, but it looks like we are in our query language so who cares, right!
Finally, you can run multiple _setattr
calls on the same object, just give it a try yourself.