这个问题的一个问题是字典的值可以是任意复杂的数据块。基于这些和其他答案，我得出了以下代码:

class YamlReaderError(Exception):
    pass

def data_merge(a, b):
    """merges b into a and return merged result

    NOTE: tuples and arbitrary objects are not handled as it is totally ambiguous what should happen"""
    key = None
    # ## debug output
    # sys.stderr.write("DEBUG: %s to %s\n" %(b,a))
    try:
        if a is None or isinstance(a, str) or isinstance(a, unicode) or isinstance(a, int) or isinstance(a, long) or isinstance(a, float):
            # border case for first run or if a is a primitive
            a = b
        elif isinstance(a, list):
            # lists can be only appended
            if isinstance(b, list):
                # merge lists
                a.extend(b)
            else:
                # append to list
                a.append(b)
        elif isinstance(a, dict):
            # dicts must be merged
            if isinstance(b, dict):
                for key in b:
                    if key in a:
                        a[key] = data_merge(a[key], b[key])
                    else:
                        a[key] = b[key]
            else:
                raise YamlReaderError('Cannot merge non-dict "%s" into dict "%s"' % (b, a))
        else:
            raise YamlReaderError('NOT IMPLEMENTED "%s" into "%s"' % (b, a))
    except TypeError, e:
        raise YamlReaderError('TypeError "%s" in key "%s" when merging "%s" into "%s"' % (e, key, b, a))
    return a

我的用例是合并YAML文件，其中我只需要处理可能的数据类型的子集。因此我可以忽略元组和其他对象。对我来说，合理的合并逻辑意味着

取代标量 添加列表 通过添加缺失键和更新现有键来合并字典

其他任何事情和不可预见的事情都会导致错误。

下面的函数将b合并为a。

def mergedicts(a, b):
    for key in b:
        if isinstance(a.get(key), dict) or isinstance(b.get(key), dict):
            mergedicts(a[key], b[key])
        else:
            a[key] = b[key]
    return a

基于@andrew cooke。这个版本处理字典的嵌套列表，还允许选项更新值

def merge(a, b, path=None, update=True):
    "http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7204805/python-dictionaries-of-dictionaries-merge"
    "merges b into a"
    if path is None: path = []
    for key in b:
        if key in a:
            if isinstance(a[key], dict) and isinstance(b[key], dict):
                merge(a[key], b[key], path + [str(key)])
            elif a[key] == b[key]:
                pass # same leaf value
            elif isinstance(a[key], list) and isinstance(b[key], list):
                for idx, val in enumerate(b[key]):
                    a[key][idx] = merge(a[key][idx], b[key][idx], path + [str(key), str(idx)], update=update)
            elif update:
                a[key] = b[key]
            else:
                raise Exception('Conflict at %s' % '.'.join(path + [str(key)]))
        else:
            a[key] = b[key]
    return a

Short-n-sweet:

from collections.abc import MutableMapping as Map

def nested_update(d, v):
"""
Nested update of dict-like 'd' with dict-like 'v'.
"""

for key in v:
    if key in d and isinstance(d[key], Map) and isinstance(v[key], Map):
        nested_update(d[key], v[key])
    else:
        d[key] = v[key]

这类似于(并且构建在)Python的字典上。更新方法。它返回None(如果你喜欢，你总是可以添加返回d)，因为它在原地更新dict d。v中的键将覆盖d中任何现有的键(它不会尝试解释字典的内容)。

它也适用于其他(“类字典”)映射。

字典的字典合并

由于这是一个规范的问题(尽管存在某些非泛化性)，所以我提供了规范的python方法来解决这个问题。

最简单的情况:“叶子是嵌套的字典，以空字典结尾”:

d1 = {'a': {1: {'foo': {}}, 2: {}}}
d2 = {'a': {1: {}, 2: {'bar': {}}}}
d3 = {'b': {3: {'baz': {}}}}
d4 = {'a': {1: {'quux': {}}}}

这是递归最简单的情况，我推荐两种简单的方法:

def rec_merge1(d1, d2):
    '''return new merged dict of dicts'''
    for k, v in d1.items(): # in Python 2, use .iteritems()!
        if k in d2:
            d2[k] = rec_merge1(v, d2[k])
    d3 = d1.copy()
    d3.update(d2)
    return d3

def rec_merge2(d1, d2):
    '''update first dict with second recursively'''
    for k, v in d1.items(): # in Python 2, use .iteritems()!
        if k in d2:
            d2[k] = rec_merge2(v, d2[k])
    d1.update(d2)
    return d1

我相信我更喜欢第二个，而不是第一个，但请记住，第一个的原始状态必须从它的起源重建。用法如下:

>>> from functools import reduce # only required for Python 3.
>>> reduce(rec_merge1, (d1, d2, d3, d4))
{'a': {1: {'quux': {}, 'foo': {}}, 2: {'bar': {}}}, 'b': {3: {'baz': {}}}}
>>> reduce(rec_merge2, (d1, d2, d3, d4))
{'a': {1: {'quux': {}, 'foo': {}}, 2: {'bar': {}}}, 'b': {3: {'baz': {}}}}

复杂情况:“叶子是任何其他类型的:”

所以如果它们以字典结尾，这是一个简单的合并结尾空字典的例子。如果不是，也不是那么微不足道。如果是字符串，怎么合并?集合也可以类似地更新，所以我们可以这样处理，但我们失去了它们合并的顺序。那么顺序重要吗?

因此，代替更多信息，最简单的方法是给它们一个标准的更新处理，如果两个值都不是dict:即第二个dict的值将覆盖第一个dict，即使第二个dict的值是None，而第一个dict的值是一个包含大量信息的dict。

d1 = {'a': {1: 'foo', 2: None}}
d2 = {'a': {1: None, 2: 'bar'}}
d3 = {'b': {3: 'baz'}}
d4 = {'a': {1: 'quux'}}

from collections.abc import MutableMapping

def rec_merge(d1, d2):
    '''
    Update two dicts of dicts recursively, 
    if either mapping has leaves that are non-dicts, 
    the second's leaf overwrites the first's.
    '''
    for k, v in d1.items():
        if k in d2:
            # this next check is the only difference!
            if all(isinstance(e, MutableMapping) for e in (v, d2[k])):
                d2[k] = rec_merge(v, d2[k])
            # we could further check types and merge as appropriate here.
    d3 = d1.copy()
    d3.update(d2)
    return d3

现在

from functools import reduce
reduce(rec_merge, (d1, d2, d3, d4))

返回

{'a': {1: 'quux', 2: 'bar'}, 'b': {3: 'baz'}}

适用于原问题:

我不得不删除字母周围的花括号，并将它们放在单引号中，以使其成为合法的Python(否则它们将在Python 2.7+中设置字面量)，并附加一个缺少的大括号:

dict1 = {1:{"a":'A'}, 2:{"b":'B'}}
dict2 = {2:{"c":'C'}, 3:{"d":'D'}}

rec_merge(dict1, dict2)现在返回:

{1: {'a': 'A'}, 2: {'c': 'C', 'b': 'B'}, 3: {'d': 'D'}}

匹配原始问题的期望结果(在改变后，例如{A}为'A')。

我有一个迭代的解决方案-工作得更好的大字典&很多(例如jsons等):

import collections


def merge_dict_with_subdicts(dict1: dict, dict2: dict) -> dict:
    """
    similar behaviour to builtin dict.update - but knows how to handle nested dicts
    """
    q = collections.deque([(dict1, dict2)])
    while len(q) > 0:
        d1, d2 = q.pop()
        for k, v in d2.items():
            if k in d1 and isinstance(d1[k], dict) and isinstance(v, dict):
                q.append((d1[k], v))
            else:
                d1[k] = v

    return dict1

注意，这将使用d2中的值来覆盖d1，以防它们都不是字典。(与python的dict.update()相同)

一些测试:

def test_deep_update():
    d = dict()
    merge_dict_with_subdicts(d, {"a": 4})
    assert d == {"a": 4}

    new_dict = {
        "b": {
            "c": {
                "d": 6
            }
        }
    }
    merge_dict_with_subdicts(d, new_dict)
    assert d == {
        "a": 4,
        "b": {
            "c": {
                "d": 6
            }
        }
    }

    new_dict = {
        "a": 3,
        "b": {
            "f": 7
        }
    }
    merge_dict_with_subdicts(d, new_dict)
    assert d == {
        "a": 3,
        "b": {
            "c": {
                "d": 6
            },
            "f": 7
        }
    }

    # test a case where one of the dicts has dict as value and the other has something else
    new_dict = {
        'a': {
            'b': 4
        }
    }
    merge_dict_with_subdicts(d, new_dict)
    assert d['a']['b'] == 4

我已经测试了大约1200个字典——这种方法花了0.4秒，而递归的解决方案花了2.5秒。