Adding parse_path

deepdiff/__init__.py

@@ -11,4 +11,4 @@
 from .search import DeepSearch, grep
 from .deephash import DeepHash
 from .delta import Delta
-from .path import extract
+from .path import extract, parse_path

deepdiff/path.py

@@ -185,3 +185,41 @@ def extract(obj, path):
     """
     elements = _path_to_elements(path, root_element=None)
     return _get_nested_obj(obj, elements)
+
+
+def parse_path(path, root_element=DEFAULT_FIRST_ELEMENT, include_actions=False):
+    """
+    Parse a path to a format that is machine readable
+
+    **Parameters**
+
+    path : A string
+    The path string such as "root[1][2]['age']"
+
+    root_element: string, default='root'
+        What the root is called in the path.
+
+    include_actions: boolean, default=False
+        If True, we return the action required to retrieve the item at each element of the path.  
+
+    **Examples**
+
+        >>> from deepdiff import parse_path
+        >>> parse_path("root[1][2]['age']")
+        [1, 2, 'age']
+        >>> parse_path("root[1][2]['age']", include_actions=True)
+        [{'element': 1, 'action': 'GET'}, {'element': 2, 'action': 'GET'}, {'element': 'age', 'action': 'GET'}]
+        >>>
+        >>> parse_path("root['joe'].age")
+        ['joe', 'age']
+        >>> parse_path("root['joe'].age", include_actions=True)
+        [{'element': 'joe', 'action': 'GET'}, {'element': 'age', 'action': 'GETATTR'}]
+
+    """
+
+    result = _path_to_elements(path, root_element=root_element)
+    result = iter(result)
+    next(result)  # We don't want the root item
+    if include_actions is False:
+        return [i[0] for i in result]
+    return [{'element': i[0], 'action': i[1]} for i in result]

docs/faq.rst

@@ -88,4 +88,23 @@ In order to serialize DeepDiff results into json, use to_json()
     >>> diff.to_json()
     '{"type_changes": {"root": {"old_type": "int", "new_type": "str", "old_value": 1, "new_value": "a"}}}'
 
+
+Q: How do I parse DeepDiff result paths?
+----------------------------------------
+
+**Answer**
+
+Use parse_path:
+
+    >>> from deepdiff import parse_path
+    >>> parse_path("root[1][2]['age']")
+    [1, 2, 'age']
+    >>> parse_path("root[1][2]['age']", include_actions=True)
+    [{'element': 1, 'action': 'GET'}, {'element': 2, 'action': 'GET'}, {'element': 'age', 'action': 'GET'}]
+    >>>
+    >>> parse_path("root['joe'].age")
+    ['joe', 'age']
+    >>> parse_path("root['joe'].age", include_actions=True)
+    [{'element': 'joe', 'action': 'GET'}, {'element': 'age', 'action': 'GETATTR'}]
+
 Back to :doc:`/index`

tests/test_path.py

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import pytest
-from deepdiff.path import _path_to_elements, GET, GETATTR, extract
+from deepdiff.path import _path_to_elements, GET, GETATTR, extract, parse_path
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize('path, expected', [
@@ -32,3 +32,14 @@ def test_path_to_elements(path, expected):
 def test_get_item(obj, path, expected):
     result = extract(obj, path)
     assert expected == result
+
+
+def test_parse_path():
+    result = parse_path("root[1][2]['age']")
+    assert [1, 2, 'age'] == result
+    result2 = parse_path("root[1][2]['age']", include_actions=True)
+    assert [{'element': 1, 'action': 'GET'}, {'element': 2, 'action': 'GET'}, {'element': 'age', 'action': 'GET'}] == result2
+    result3 = parse_path("root['joe'].age")
+    assert ['joe', 'age'] == result3
+    result4 = parse_path("root['joe'].age", include_actions=True)
+    assert [{'element': 'joe', 'action': 'GET'}, {'element': 'age', 'action': 'GETATTR'}] == result4