The UserDict module

This module contains a dictionary class which can be subclassed (it’s actually a Python wrapper for the built-in dictionary type).

The following example shows an enhanced dictionary class, which allows dictionaries to be ‘added’ to each other, and be initialized using the keyword argument syntax.

Example: Using the UserDict module

# File: userdict-example-1.py

import UserDict

class FancyDict(UserDict.UserDict):

    def __init__(self, data = {}, **kw):
        UserDict.UserDict.__init__(self)
        self.update(data)
        self.update(kw)

    def __add__(self, other):
        dict = FancyDict(self.data)
        dict.update(b)
        return dict

a = FancyDict(a = 1)
b = FancyDict(b = 2)

print a + b

{'b': 2, 'a': 1}