In Python 3, how to append a nested dictionary to a shelve file with the added difficulty of using a for loop?

[Aaron]

Hello,

I am trying to figure out how to populate a shelve file with a nested dictionary.

These are my requirements:

-Create shelve file called people.db
-Append the shelve file with new people (person_1, person_2, etc.).
-Use a for loop to iterate through 'attributes' so that I do not need to write out the lengthy code line by line to populate to the shelve file.
-Need to reference shelve file data for future use

Here is the key/value format that I would like to append to the shelve file.

person_1 = { 'name': 'Bob', 'type': 'employee', 'attributes':
        [{'game': 'basketball', 'high score': '100', 'time': '3.34'},
        {'game': 'bridge', 'high score': '10', 'time': '30.34'},
        {'game': 'foosball', 'high score': '2', 'time': '24'}]
        '''
        50+ other attributes
        '''
        }

# Example: s['person_1]['attributes'][2]['time'] would call out '24'.
# 's' is from 's = shelve.open('people')'
I have a dictionary dictPeople.py file (created using pprint() that contains the information of person_1, etc. And I am extracting only a small percentage of the data that is needed.

I have tried the following, but I get an invalid key error.

import shelve, dictPeople
s = shelve.open('people')
person = 'person_1'
s[person]['name'] = dictPeople.person_1['name']
s[person]['type'] = dictPeople.person_1['type']
# I need to use this for loop because there are 50+ attributes.
for attribute in range(0, len(dictPeople['attributes'][attribute])):
s[person]['attributes'][attribute]['game'] = \
    dictPeople['attributes'][attribute]['game']
s[person]['attributes'][attribute]['high score'] = \
    dictPeople['attributes'][attribute]['high score']
s[person]['attributes'][attribute]['time'] = \
    dictPeople['attributes'][attribute]['time']
It turns out, I get the key error because I am not allowed to reference a key/value pair the same way that I can with a dictionary. However, the crazy thing is that I can call values in the db file using the same exact format when trying to write.

For example: I can read data from the .db file using:

x = s['person_1']['name']
print(x)
BUT! I cannot write to that .db file using that exact format or I get an invalid key error. Makes no sense!

s['person_1']['name'] = 'Bob'
# Returns invalid key entry.  Makes no sense.
Therefore, I tried to extract data and populate the db file using the following:

s[person] = {   'name': dictPeople.person_1['name'],
            'type': dictPeople.person_1['type'],
for attribute in range(0, len(dictPeople['attributes'][attribute])):
    ['game':  dictPeople['attributes'][attribute]['game'],
    'high score': dictPeople['attributes'][attribute]['high score'],
    'time': dictPeople['attributes'][attribute]['time']]

}
But, this obvously doesn't work because of the for loop. How can I do this?

-I am trying to figure out how to extract data from the dictionary dictPeople.py file and store it in the people.db file.
-I am trying to add new people to the people.db file as more people become available.
-I need to use the for loop because of the 50+ attributes I need to add.
-My future steps would be to modify some of the data values that I extract and used to populate the people.db file, but my first step is to, at least, extract, and then populate the people.db file.

Any help or guidance is greatly appreciated.  Thank you for your time and reading my question.

Thanks!
Aaron