See if value exists in Python nested dict which contains dicts, lists, and strings

Question

I’m not sure if there is some library that handles this, or if recursion is the way to go. I am trying to write a recursion function, when I call it it always ends up returning False. Any help appreciated.

item starts out as a dict.
text is a string to match.

def match(item, text):
    if item == text:
        return True
    if type(item) == list:
        for i in item:
            match(i, text)
    if type(item) == dict:
        for i in item.values():
             match(i text)
    return False

I’m not quite grasping how to have it keep going when say the first item of a list is not a match.

Asked By: chrismint

||

Source

Answer 1

You’re not returning True when the recursive call finds a match.

def match(item, text):
    if item == text:
        return True
    if isinstance(item, (list, tuple)):
        return any(match(i, text) for i in item)
    if isinstance(item, dict):
        return any(match(i, text) for i in item.values())
    return False

You should also use isinstance() for type checks, to allow for subclasses.

Answered By: Barmar

See if value exists in Python nested dict which contains dicts, lists, and strings

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