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Online Python

🔄 Merging Dictionaries

Python provides multiple ways to merge dictionaries, from simple updates to complex combinations. Understanding these methods is essential for data manipulation and configuration management.

# Basic dictionary merging
dict1 = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
dict2 = {'c': 3, 'd': 4}
merged = {**dict1, **dict2}
print(merged)  # {'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3, 'd': 4}

🎯 Merging Methods

Python offers several approaches to merge dictionaries.

Basic Examples

# Different ways to merge dictionaries
dict1 = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
dict2 = {'c': 3, 'd': 4}

# Using unpacking
merged1 = {**dict1, **dict2}
print(f"Using unpacking: {merged1}")

# Using update()
dict1.update(dict2)
print(f"Using update(): {dict1}")

# Using union operator (Python 3.9+)
merged2 = dict1 | dict2
print(f"Using union: {merged2}")

🔍 Advanced Merging

Python allows more sophisticated dictionary merging operations.

# Advanced merging examples
from collections import ChainMap

# Using ChainMap
dict1 = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
dict2 = {'b': 3, 'c': 4}
chain = ChainMap(dict1, dict2)
print(f"ChainMap: {dict(chain)}")

# Deep merging
def deep_merge(dict1, dict2):
    result = dict1.copy()
    for key, value in dict2.items():
        if key in result and isinstance(result[key], dict) and isinstance(value, dict):
            result[key] = deep_merge(result[key], value)
        else:
            result[key] = value
    return result

# Example of deep merging
dict1 = {'a': 1, 'b': {'x': 1, 'y': 2}}
dict2 = {'b': {'y': 3, 'z': 4}, 'c': 3}
merged = deep_merge(dict1, dict2)
print(f"Deep merged: {merged}")

# Handling conflicts
dict1 = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
dict2 = {'b': 3, 'c': 4}
# Keep values from dict2
merged = {**dict1, **dict2}
print(f"Conflict resolution: {merged}")

🎯 Key Takeaways

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