Override built-in classes, in particular, dictionary class

Question

I've never really liked the way the dictionary class is converted into a string so I wrote a subclass which overrides the __repr__ method (this method uses tabs to representing the level of nesting in the dictionary, mostly because I have some dictionaries which can be very big and end up myDic['a']['b']['c']['d'] = someObject).

It works fine, but it doesn't allow me to use the {} syntax to make my dictionaries.

Is it possible to override the dict class such that I can use the {} syntax to make my own custom dictionaries?

I am using python 2.6/2.7.

possible duplicate of Is possible to override the {...} notation so i get an OrderedDict() instead of a dict()? — Sven Marnach
– Sven Marnach, Commented Feb 28, 2012 at 17:24

Daenyth · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-28 17:19:31Z

1

You can't override the {} syntax. You have to explicitly construct your variables using the class name.

If you just want it printed more nicely, would using pprint.pprint suffice?

answered Feb 28, 2012 at 17:19

Daenyth

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1 Comment

scruffyDog Over a year ago

just playing with pprint now, looks promising. I think what I had was basically pprint(myDict, width=1)

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