dottify 1.1.1

A Python library to access dictionaries using dot notation.

Dottify

Dottify is a lightweight Python library that converts dictionaries into objects with attribute-style access. Instead of the usual dict["key"] syntax, you can access dictionary values using dot notation like dict.key. All access is case-sensitive, but helpful suggestions are provided when a key is missing.

Installation

Install via pip:

pip install dottify

Usage

Here’s an example of how Dottify works:

from dottify import Dottify

# Initial data
persons = {
    "Alice": {
        "age": 30,
        "city": "Paris",
        "profession": "Engineer"
    },
    "Charlie": {
        "age": 35,
        "city": "Marseille",
        "profession": "Doctor"
    }
}

# Wrap with Dottify
people = Dottify(persons)

# Merge with + operator (__add__)
new_person = {
    "Bob": {
        "age": 2,
        "city": "Lyon",
        "profession": "Designer"
    }
}
people = people + new_person

# In-place merge with += (__iadd__)
people += Dottify({
    "John": {
        "age": 27,
        "city": "Toulouse",
        "profession": "Carpenter"
    }
})

# Access by dot notation and key lookup
print(people.Alice.age)             # 30
print(people["Charlie"].city)       # Marseille
print(people.Bob.profession)        # Designer

# Index-based access (__getitem__)
print(people[3].profession)         # Carpenter (John)

# Modify attributes
people.John.profession = "Developer"
people.Bob.age = 39

# Use get() with case-insensitive fallback
print(people.get("alice", "Not Found").city)     # Paris
print(people.get("ALICIA", "Not Found"))         # Not Found

# Remove a key by name
people.remove("Bob")  # Removes Bob

# Check if a key exists
print(people.has_key("charlie"))     # False (because 'charlie' != 'Charlie')
print(people.has_key("Charlie"))     # True
print(people.has_key("unknown"))     # False

# Use len(), keys(), values(), items()
print(len(people))                   # 3 (Alice, Charlie, John)
print(list(people.keys()))           # ['Alice', 'Charlie', 'John']
print([v.city for v in people.values()])  # ['Paris', 'Marseille', 'Toulouse']
print([(k, v.age) for k, v in people.items()])  # [('Alice', 30), ('Charlie', 35), ('John', 27)]

Features

• Converts standard and nested dictionaries into objects with attribute access.
• Supports both dot notation (obj.key) and dictionary-style (obj["key"]) access.
• All access is case-sensitive.
• Friendly error messages with key suggestions (case-insensitive search).
• Key removal with .remove("Key") is case-sensitive, but also provides suggestions if the key doesn't match.
• Easily convert back to a standard dict using .to_dict().
• Supports .keys(), .values(), .items(), iteration, and len() additions.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests on the GitHub repository.

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.