Get a dictionary from an Objects Fields

In this article, we will discuss how to get a dictionary from object’s field i.e. how to get the class members in the form of a dictionary. There are two approaches to solve the above problem:  

1. By using the __dict__ attribute on an object of a class and attaining the dictionary. All objects in Python have an attribute __dict__, which is a dictionary object containing all attributes defined for that object itself. The mapping of attributes with its values is done to generate a dictionary.
2. By calling the in-built vars method, which is used to return __dict__ attribute of a module, class, class instance, or an object.

#Method 1: To generate a dictionary from an arbitrary object using  __dict__attribute:

Python3

# class Animals is declared
class Animals:

    # constructor
    def __init__(self):

        # keys are initialized with
        # their respective values
        self.lion = 'carnivore'
        self.dog = 'omnivore'
        self.giraffe = 'herbivore'

    def printit(self):
        print("Dictionary from the object fields\
        belonging to the class Animals:")


# object animal of class Animals
animal = Animals()

# calling printit method
animal.printit()
# calling attribute __dict__ on animal
# object and printing it
print(animal.__dict__)

Output:

Dictionary from the object fields belonging to the class Animals:
{‘lion’: ‘carnivore’, ‘dog’: ‘omnivore’, ‘giraffe’: ‘herbivore’}

#Method 2: To generate a dictionary from an arbitrary object using an in-built vars method:

Python3

# class A is declared
class A:

    # constructor
    def __init__(self):

        # keys are initialized with
        # their respective values
        self.A = 1
        self.B = 2
        self.C = 3
        self.D = 4

# object obj of class A
obj = A()

# calling vars method on obj object
print(vars(obj))

Output:

{'A': 1, 'B': 2, 'C': 3, 'D': 4}