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

[Aaron Christensen]

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