pythonic way to manipulate nested dict from dotted path?

Question

I have a nested dictionary, an encryption function and a dotted path, I want to apply my encryption function to encrypt specific field. Example:

mydict

{"a":{
     ...
     "b":{
          ...
          "c":"value"
           }
      }
 }

field path: a.b.c

I want to execute encryption function on c value and modify my dict. What's the most efficent and pythonic way?

Answer 1

I'm guessing what you mean is have the number of nestings be variable according to a string like 'a.b.c':

d = {"a":{"b":{"c":"value"}}}
dotted = 'a.b.c'

paths, current = dotted.split('.'), d
for p in paths[:-1]:
    current = current[p]
current[paths[-1]] = encrypt(current[paths[-1]])

this will modify the given dictionary d to be

{"a":{"b":{"c":"whatever the encrypted value is"}}}