How to use a dot "." to access members of dictionary?

Question

How do I make Python dictionary members accessible via a dot "."?

For example, instead of writing mydict['val'], I'd like to write mydict.val.

Also I'd like to access nested dicts this way. For example

mydict.mydict2.val 

would refer to

mydict = { 'mydict2': { 'val': ... } }

Answer 1

I've always kept this around in a util file. You can use it as a mixin on your own classes too.

class dotdict(dict):
    """dot.notation access to dictionary attributes"""
    __getattr__ = dict.get
    __setattr__ = dict.__setitem__
    __delattr__ = dict.__delitem__

mydict = {'val':'it works'}
nested_dict = {'val':'nested works too'}
mydict = dotdict(mydict)
mydict.val
# 'it works'

mydict.nested = dotdict(nested_dict)
mydict.nested.val
# 'nested works too'