How to convert list of dictionaries into a dictionary of dictionaries by using inner key:value pair

So, instead of trying to explain things first, I will just show you what I have and what I want (this is easier):

What I have:

dict_list = [
    {'some': 1.2, 'key': 1.3, 'words': 3.9, 'label': 0},
    {'other': 1.2, 'wordly': 1.3, 'words': 3.9, 'label': 1},
    {'other': 10, 'work': 1.3, 'like': 3.9, 'label': 1},
]

What I want to get from what I have:

dict_dict = { "0":{'some': 1.2, 'key': 1.3, 'words': 3.9},
              "1":{'other': 10, 'wordly': 1.3, 'work': 1.3, 'like': 3.9, 'words': 3.9},
}

Explanation:

So, I want to create a dictionary by using the “label” keys as the main keys in that new dictionary. I also need to merge dictionaries that have the same label. During this merging, I need to keep the highest value if there is a duplicate key (as the “other” key in the example).

Why don’t I do all of this before I create the original list of dicts?

Because dict_list is a result of a joblib (multiprocessing) process. Sharing some objects between processes slowing down the multiprocessing. So, instead of sharing, I have decided to run the heavy work on multiple cores and then do the organizing after. I am not sure if this approach will be any helpful but I can’t know without testing.

Answer

Counter module has nice merging feature a|b which joins the dictionaries keeping the higher values.

from collections import Counter
dict_dict = {}
for dictionary in dict_list:
    label = str(dictionary.pop('label'))
    dict_dict[label] = dict_dict.get(label,Counter())|Counter(dictionary)

###If you don't need Counters, just convert back to dictionaries
dict_dict = {i:dict(v) for i,v in dict_dict.items()}