How can I turn a list of dicts like [{'a':1}, {'b':2}, {'c':1}, {'d':2}], into a single dict like {'a':1, 'b':2, 'c':1, 'd':2}?
Answers here will overwrite keys that match between two of the input dicts, because a dict cannot have duplicate keys. If you want to collect multiple values from matching keys, see How to merge dicts, collecting values from matching keys?.
Little improvement for @dietbuddha answer with dictionary unpacking from PEP 448, for me, it`s more readable this way, also, it is faster as well:
from functools import reduce
result_dict = reduce(lambda a, b: {**a, **b}, list_of_dicts)
But keep in mind, this works only with Python 3.5+ versions.
This is similar to @delnan but offers the option to modify the k/v (key/value) items and I believe is more readable:
new_dict = {k:v for list_item in list_of_dicts for (k,v) in list_item.items()}
for instance, replace k/v elems as follows:
new_dict = {str(k).replace(" ","_"):v for list_item in list_of_dicts for (k,v) in list_item.items()}
unpacks the k,v tuple from the dictionary .items() generator after pulling the dict object out of the list
If you don't need the singleton dicts anymore:
>>> L = [{'a':1}, {'b':2}, {'c':1}, {'d':2}]
>>> dict(map(dict.popitem, L))
{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 1, 'd': 2}