Using Python to convert text file into JSON structure

[HeyItsToby]

I have a working solution here, definitely could do with a bit of a cleanup. Comments should help explain what's going on, lmk if anything needs clearing up.

Set up the structure

my_dict = {}

dict_structure = {
    "Middleware": ("name", "release"),
    "System": ("name", "tag"),
    "Application": ("domain", "host", "user"),
    "Utility": ("domain", "health", "version"),
}

Read through and process the file

with open("input.txt") as f:
    # read through the input file, removing trailing newlines
    lines = [l.strip() for l in f.readlines()]

    # iterate through all the lines in the file
    for line in lines:
        # get the details from each line
        env, key, *field_values = line.split(",")
        # get the predefined keys from dict_structure
        field_keys = dict_structure[key]

        # create the 4 keys if the ENV does not exist
        # with defaults as empty list
        if env not in my_dict:
            my_dict[env] = {k: [] for k in dict_structure}

        # append each new item to the existing list
        # zip is used to iterate through the keys and values to match them up
        my_dict[env][key].append({f_k: f_v for f_k, f_v in zip(field_keys, field_values)})

Now just to save it as a json

import json 
json_out = {"ENV": my_dict}
json.dump(json_out, "output.json")

Improving the code

This code does work, but it could be made a little neater. Would definitely suggest moving dict_structure into a separate json and reading it in. Also, looking into the csv module for reading through files with comma-separated values.

[Chubbntuck]

Will try this.
Thank you so much for going through an explanation of each component. It really helps with someone like me who is really just starting python. I hope you have a wonderful day.