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

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'

Install dotmap via pip

pip install dotmap

It does everything you want it to do and subclasses dict, so it operates like a normal dictionary:

from dotmap import DotMap

m = DotMap()
m.hello = 'world'
m.hello
m.hello += '!'
# m.hello and m['hello'] now both return 'world!'
m.val = 5
m.val2 = 'Sam'

On top of that, you can convert it to and from dict objects:

d = m.toDict()
m = DotMap(d) # automatic conversion in constructor

This means that if something you want to access is already in dict form, you can turn it into a DotMap for easy access:

import json
jsonDict = json.loads(text)
data = DotMap(jsonDict)
print data.location.city

Finally, it automatically creates new child DotMap instances so you can do things like this:

m = DotMap()
m.people.steve.age = 31

Comparison to Bunch

Full disclosure: I am the creator of the DotMap. I created it because Bunch was missing these features

• remembering the order items are added and iterating in that order
• automatic child DotMap creation, which saves time and makes for cleaner code when you have a lot of hierarchy
• constructing from a dict and recursively converting all child dict instances to DotMap

You can do it using this class I just made. With this class you can use the Map object like another dictionary(including json serialization) or with the dot notation. I hope to help you:

class Map(dict):
    """
    Example:
    m = Map({'first_name': 'Eduardo'}, last_name='Pool', age=24, sports=['Soccer'])
    """
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(Map, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        for arg in args:
            if isinstance(arg, dict):
                for k, v in arg.iteritems():
                    self[k] = v

        if kwargs:
            for k, v in kwargs.iteritems():
                self[k] = v

    def __getattr__(self, attr):
        return self.get(attr)

    def __setattr__(self, key, value):
        self.__setitem__(key, value)

    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
        super(Map, self).__setitem__(key, value)
        self.__dict__.update({key: value})

    def __delattr__(self, item):
        self.__delitem__(item)

    def __delitem__(self, key):
        super(Map, self).__delitem__(key)
        del self.__dict__[key]

Usage examples:

m = Map({'first_name': 'Eduardo'}, last_name='Pool', age=24, sports=['Soccer'])
# Add new key
m.new_key = 'Hello world!'
# Or
m['new_key'] = 'Hello world!'
print m.new_key
print m['new_key']
# Update values
m.new_key = 'Yay!'
# Or
m['new_key'] = 'Yay!'
# Delete key
del m.new_key
# Or
del m['new_key']

Derive from dict and and implement __getattr__ and __setattr__.

Or you can use Bunch which is very similar.

I don't think it's possible to monkeypatch built-in dict class.