Combine Python dictionaries that have the same Key name

Question

I have two separate Python List that have common key names in their respective dictionary. The second list called recordList has multiple dictionaries with the same key name that I want to append the first list clientList. Here are examples lists:

clientList = [{'client1': ['c1','f1']}, {'client2': ['c2','f2']}]
recordList = [{'client1': {'rec_1':['t1','s1']}}, {'client1': {'rec_2':['t2','s2']}}]

So the end result would be something like this so the records are now in a new list of multiple dictionaries within the clientList.

 clientList = [{'client1': [['c1','f1'], [{'rec_1':['t1','s1']},{'rec_2':['t2','s2']}]]}, {'client2': [['c2','f2']]}]

Seems simple enough but I'm struggling to find a way to iterate both of these dictionaries using variables to find where they match.

Answer 1

When you are sure, that the key names are equal in both dictionaries:

    clientlist = dict([(k, [clientList[k], recordlist[k]]) for k in clientList])

like here:

    >>> a = {1:1,2:2,3:3}
    >>> b = {1:11,2:12,3:13}
    >>> c = dict([(k,[a[k],b[k]]) for k in a])
    >>> c
    {1: [1, 11], 2: [2, 12], 3: [3, 13]}

Answer 2

Assuming you want a list of values that correspond to each key in the two lists, try this as a start:

from pprint import pprint

clientList = [{'client1': ['c1','f1']}, {'client2': ['c2','f2']}]
recordList = [{'client1': {'rec_1':['t1','s1']}}, {'client1': {'rec_2':['t2','s2']}}]
clientList.extend(recordList)

outputList = {}

for rec in clientList:
    k = rec.keys()[0]
    v = rec.values()[0]
    if k in outputList:
        outputList[k].append(v)
    else:
        outputList[k] = [v,]

pprint(outputList)

It will produce this:

{'client1': [['c1', 'f1'], {'rec_1': ['t1', 's1']}, {'rec_2': ['t2', 's2']}],
 'client2': [['c2', 'f2']]}