Merge pull request #115 from sciris/search-objects

Add search function

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 
 By import convention, components of the Sciris library are listed beginning with `sc.`, e.g. `sc.odict()`.
 
+## Version 0.17.2 (2020-07-13)
+1. `sc.search()` is a new function to find nested attributes/keys within objects or dictionaries.
+
 ## Version 0.17.1 (2020-07-07)
 1. `sc.Blobject` has been modified to allow more flexibility with saving (e.g., `Path` objects).
 

sciris/sc_utils.py

@@ -1945,7 +1945,7 @@ def mprofile(run, follow=None, *args, **kwargs):
 ### NESTED DICTIONARY FUNCTIONS
 ##############################################################################
 
-__all__ += ['getnested', 'setnested', 'makenested', 'iternested', 'mergenested', 'flattendict']
+__all__ += ['getnested', 'setnested', 'makenested', 'iternested', 'mergenested', 'flattendict', 'search']
 
 docstring = '''
 Four little functions to get and set data from nested dictionaries. The first two were adapted from:
@@ -2091,6 +2091,52 @@ def flattendict(input_dict: dict, sep: str = None, _prefix=None) -> dict:
 
     return output_dict
 
+def search(obj, attribute, _trace=''):
+    """
+    Find a key or attribute within a dictionary or object.
+
+    This function facilitates finding nested key(s) or attributes within an object,
+    by searching recursively through keys or attributes.
+
+
+    Args:
+        obj: A dict or class with __dict__ attribute
+        attribute: The substring to search for
+        _trace: Not for user input - internal variable used for recursion
+
+    Returns:
+        A list of matching attributes. The items in the list are the Python
+        strings used to access the attribute (via attribute or dict indexing)
+
+    Example::
+
+        nested = {'a':{'foo':1, 'bar':2}, 'b':{'bar':3, 'cat':4}}
+        matches = sc.search(nested, 'bar') # Returns ['["a"]["bar"]', '["b"]["bar"]']
+
+    """
+
+    matches = []
+
+    if isinstance(obj, dict):
+        d = obj
+    elif hasattr(obj, '__dict__'):
+        d = obj.__dict__
+    else:
+        return matches
+
+    for attr in d:
+
+        if isinstance(obj, dict):
+            s = _trace + f'["{attr}"]'
+        else:
+            s = _trace + f'.{attr}'
+
+        if attribute in attr:
+            matches.append(s)
+
+        matches += search(d[attr], attribute, s)
+
+    return matches
 
 ##############################################################################
 ### CLASSES

sciris/sc_version.py

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 __all__ = ['__version__', '__versiondate__', '__license__']
 
-__version__      = '0.17.1'
-__versiondate__  = '2020-07-07'
+__version__      = '0.17.2'
+__versiondate__  = '2020-07-13'
 __license__      = 'Sciris %s (%s) -- (c) Sciris.org' % (__version__, __versiondate__)

tests/test_utils.py

@@ -279,6 +279,14 @@ def test_nested_dicts():
     return dict3
 
 
+def test_search():
+    sc.heading('Testing search')
+    nested = {'a':{'foo':1, 'bar':2}, 'b':{'bar':3, 'cat':4}}
+    matches = sc.search(nested, 'bar') # Returns ['["a"]["bar"]', '["b"]["bar"]']
+    print(matches)
+    return matches
+
+
 def test_progress_bar():
     sc.heading('Progress bar')
     n = 50
@@ -305,6 +313,7 @@ def test_progress_bar():
     flat      = test_flattendict()
     md        = test_mergedicts()
     nested    = test_nested_dicts()
+    matches   = test_search()
     ind       = test_progress_bar()
 
     sc.toc()