[python] How do I merge two dictionaries in a single expression (taking union of dictionaries)?

I have two Python dictionaries, and I want to write a single expression that returns these two dictionaries, merged (i.e. taking the union). The update() method would be what I need, if it returned its result instead of modifying a dictionary in-place.

>>> x = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b': 10, 'c': 11}
>>> z = x.update(y)
>>> print(z)
None
>>> x
{'a': 1, 'b': 10, 'c': 11}

How can I get that final merged dictionary in z, not x?

(To be extra-clear, the last-one-wins conflict-handling of dict.update() is what I'm looking for as well.)

Recursively/deep update a dict

def deepupdate(original, update):
    """
    Recursively update a dict.
    Subdict's won't be overwritten but also updated.
    """
    for key, value in original.iteritems(): 
        if key not in update:
            update[key] = value
        elif isinstance(value, dict):
            deepupdate(value, update[key]) 
    return update

Demonstration:

pluto_original = {
    'name': 'Pluto',
    'details': {
        'tail': True,
        'color': 'orange'
    }
}

pluto_update = {
    'name': 'Pluutoo',
    'details': {
        'color': 'blue'
    }
}

print deepupdate(pluto_original, pluto_update)

Outputs:

{
    'name': 'Pluutoo',
    'details': {
        'color': 'blue',
        'tail': True
    }
}

Thanks rednaw for edits.

The problem I have with solutions listed to date is that, in the merged dictionary, the value for key "b" is 10 but, to my way of thinking, it should be 12. In that light, I present the following:

import timeit

n=100000
su = """
x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
"""

def timeMerge(f,su,niter):
    print "{:4f} sec for: {:30s}".format(timeit.Timer(f,setup=su).timeit(n),f)

timeMerge("dict(x, **y)",su,n)
timeMerge("x.update(y)",su,n)
timeMerge("dict(x.items() + y.items())",su,n)
timeMerge("for k in y.keys(): x[k] = k in x and x[k]+y[k] or y[k] ",su,n)

#confirm for loop adds b entries together
x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
for k in y.keys(): x[k] = k in x and x[k]+y[k] or y[k]
print "confirm b elements are added:",x

Results:

0.049465 sec for: dict(x, **y)
0.033729 sec for: x.update(y)                   
0.150380 sec for: dict(x.items() + y.items())   
0.083120 sec for: for k in y.keys(): x[k] = k in x and x[k]+y[k] or y[k]

confirm b elements are added: {'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 12}

from collections import Counter
dict1 = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
dict2 = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
result = dict(Counter(dict1) + Counter(dict2))

This should solve your problem.

This probably won't be a popular answer, but you almost certainly do not want to do this. If you want a copy that's a merge, then use copy (or deepcopy, depending on what you want) and then update. The two lines of code are much more readable - more Pythonic - than the single line creation with .items() + .items(). Explicit is better than implicit.

In addition, when you use .items() (pre Python 3.0), you're creating a new list that contains the items from the dict. If your dictionaries are large, then that is quite a lot of overhead (two large lists that will be thrown away as soon as the merged dict is created). update() can work more efficiently, because it can run through the second dict item-by-item.

In terms of time:

>>> timeit.Timer("dict(x, **y)", "x = dict(zip(range(1000), range(1000)))\ny=dict(zip(range(1000,2000), range(1000,2000)))").timeit(100000)
15.52571702003479
>>> timeit.Timer("temp = x.copy()\ntemp.update(y)", "x = dict(zip(range(1000), range(1000)))\ny=dict(zip(range(1000,2000), range(1000,2000)))").timeit(100000)
15.694622993469238
>>> timeit.Timer("dict(x.items() + y.items())", "x = dict(zip(range(1000), range(1000)))\ny=dict(zip(range(1000,2000), range(1000,2000)))").timeit(100000)
41.484580039978027

IMO the tiny slowdown between the first two is worth it for the readability. In addition, keyword arguments for dictionary creation was only added in Python 2.3, whereas copy() and update() will work in older versions.

There will be a new option when Python 3.8 releases (scheduled for 20 October, 2019), thanks to PEP 572: Assignment Expressions. The new assignment expression operator := allows you to assign the result of the copy and still use it to call update, leaving the combined code a single expression, rather than two statements, changing:

newdict = dict1.copy()
newdict.update(dict2)

to:

(newdict := dict1.copy()).update(dict2)

while behaving identically in every way. If you must also return the resulting dict (you asked for an expression returning the dict; the above creates and assigns to newdict, but doesn't return it, so you couldn't use it to pass an argument to a function as is, a la myfunc((newdict := dict1.copy()).update(dict2))), then just add or newdict to the end (since update returns None, which is falsy, it will then evaluate and return newdict as the result of the expression):

(newdict := dict1.copy()).update(dict2) or newdict

Important caveat: In general, I'd discourage this approach in favor of:

newdict = {**dict1, **dict2}

The unpacking approach is clearer (to anyone who knows about generalized unpacking in the first place, which you should), doesn't require a name for the result at all (so it's much more concise when constructing a temporary that is immediately passed to a function or included in a list/tuple literal or the like), and is almost certainly faster as well, being (on CPython) roughly equivalent to:

newdict = {}
newdict.update(dict1)
newdict.update(dict2)

but done at the C layer, using the concrete dict API, so no dynamic method lookup/binding or function call dispatch overhead is involved (where (newdict := dict1.copy()).update(dict2) is unavoidably identical to the original two-liner in behavior, performing the work in discrete steps, with dynamic lookup/binding/invocation of methods.

It's also more extensible, as merging three dicts is obvious:

 newdict = {**dict1, **dict2, **dict3}

where using assignment expressions won't scale like that; the closest you could get would be:

 (newdict := dict1.copy()).update(dict2), newdict.update(dict3)

or without the temporary tuple of Nones, but with truthiness testing of each None result:

 (newdict := dict1.copy()).update(dict2) or newdict.update(dict3)

either of which is obviously much uglier, and includes further inefficiencies (either a wasted temporary tuple of Nones for comma separation, or pointless truthiness testing of each update's None return for or separation).

The only real advantage to the assignment expression approach occurs if:

1. You have generic code that needs handle both sets and dicts (both of them support copy and update, so the code works roughly as you'd expect it to)
2. You expect to receive arbitrary dict-like objects, not just dict itself, and must preserve the type and semantics of the left hand side (rather than ending up with a plain dict). While myspecialdict({**speciala, **specialb}) might work, it would involve an extra temporary dict, and if myspecialdict has features plain dict can't preserve (e.g. regular dicts now preserve order based on the first appearance of a key, and value based on the last appearance of a key; you might want one that preserves order based on the last appearance of a key so updating a value also moves it to the end), then the semantics would be wrong. Since the assignment expression version uses the named methods (which are presumably overloaded to behave appropriately), it never creates a dict at all (unless dict1 was already a dict), preserving the original type (and original type's semantics), all while avoiding any temporaries.

I have a solution which is not specified here

z = {}
z.update(x) or z.update(y)

This will not update x as well as y. Performance? I don't think it will be terribly slow.

Even though the answers were good for this shallow dictionary, none of the methods defined here actually do a deep dictionary merge.

Examples follow:

a = { 'one': { 'depth_2': True }, 'two': True }
b = { 'one': { 'extra': False } }
print dict(a.items() + b.items())

One would expect a result of something like this:

{ 'one': { 'extra': False', 'depth_2': True }, 'two': True }

Instead, we get this:

{'two': True, 'one': {'extra': False}}

The 'one' entry should have had 'depth_2' and 'extra' as items inside its dictionary if it truly was a merge.

Using chain also, does not work:

from itertools import chain
print dict(chain(a.iteritems(), b.iteritems()))

Results in:

{'two': True, 'one': {'extra': False}}

The deep merge that rcwesick gave also creates the same result.

Yes, it will work to merge the sample dictionaries, but none of them are a generic mechanism to merge. I'll update this later once I write a method that does a true merge.

Another, more concise, option:

z = dict(x, **y)

Note: this has become a popular answer, but it is important to point out that if y has any non-string keys, the fact that this works at all is an abuse of a CPython implementation detail, and it does not work in Python 3, or in PyPy, IronPython, or Jython. Also, Guido is not a fan. So I can't recommend this technique for forward-compatible or cross-implementation portable code, which really means it should be avoided entirely.

In python3, the items method no longer returns a list, but rather a view, which acts like a set. In this case you'll need to take the set union since concatenating with + won't work:

dict(x.items() | y.items())

For python3-like behavior in version 2.7, the viewitems method should work in place of items:

dict(x.viewitems() | y.viewitems())

I prefer this notation anyways since it seems more natural to think of it as a set union operation rather than concatenation (as the title shows).

Edit:

A couple more points for python 3. First, note that the dict(x, **y) trick won't work in python 3 unless the keys in y are strings.

Also, Raymond Hettinger's Chainmap answer is pretty elegant, since it can take an arbitrary number of dicts as arguments, but from the docs it looks like it sequentially looks through a list of all the dicts for each lookup:

Lookups search the underlying mappings successively until a key is found.

This can slow you down if you have a lot of lookups in your application:

In [1]: from collections import ChainMap
In [2]: from string import ascii_uppercase as up, ascii_lowercase as lo; x = dict(zip(lo, up)); y = dict(zip(up, lo))
In [3]: chainmap_dict = ChainMap(y, x)
In [4]: union_dict = dict(x.items() | y.items())
In [5]: timeit for k in union_dict: union_dict[k]
100000 loops, best of 3: 2.15 µs per loop
In [6]: timeit for k in chainmap_dict: chainmap_dict[k]
10000 loops, best of 3: 27.1 µs per loop

So about an order of magnitude slower for lookups. I'm a fan of Chainmap, but looks less practical where there may be many lookups.

Be pythonic. Use a comprehension:

z={i:d[i] for d in [x,y] for i in d}

>>> print z
{'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 10}

This is an expression for Python 3.5 or greater that merges dictionaries using reduce:

>>> from functools import reduce
>>> l = [{'a': 1}, {'b': 2}, {'a': 100, 'c': 3}]
>>> reduce(lambda x, y: {**x, **y}, l, {})
{'a': 100, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}

Note: this works even if the dictionary list is empty or contains only one element.

def dict_merge(a, b):
  c = a.copy()
  c.update(b)
  return c

new = dict_merge(old, extras)

Among such shady and dubious answers, this shining example is the one and only good way to merge dicts in Python, endorsed by dictator for life Guido van Rossum himself! Someone else suggested half of this, but did not put it in a function.

print dict_merge(
      {'color':'red', 'model':'Mini'},
      {'model':'Ferrari', 'owner':'Carl'})

gives:

{'color': 'red', 'owner': 'Carl', 'model': 'Ferrari'}

Python 3.9+ only

Merge (|) and update (|=) operators have been added to the built-in dict class.

>>> d = {'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'cheese': 3}
>>> e = {'cheese': 'cheddar', 'aardvark': 'Ethel'}
>>> d | e
{'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'cheese': 'cheddar', 'aardvark': 'Ethel'}

The augmented assignment version operates in-place:

>>> d |= e
>>> d
{'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'cheese': 'cheddar', 'aardvark': 'Ethel'}

See PEP 584

Drawing on ideas here and elsewhere I've comprehended a function:

def merge(*dicts, **kv): 
      return { k:v for d in list(dicts) + [kv] for k,v in d.items() }

Usage (tested in python 3):

assert (merge({1:11,'a':'aaa'},{1:99, 'b':'bbb'},foo='bar')==\
    {1: 99, 'foo': 'bar', 'b': 'bbb', 'a': 'aaa'})

assert (merge(foo='bar')=={'foo': 'bar'})

assert (merge({1:11},{1:99},foo='bar',baz='quux')==\
    {1: 99, 'foo': 'bar', 'baz':'quux'})

assert (merge({1:11},{1:99})=={1: 99})

You could use a lambda instead.

I think my ugly one-liners are just necessary here.

z = next(z.update(y) or z for z in [x.copy()])
# or
z = (lambda z: z.update(y) or z)(x.copy())

1. Dicts are merged.
2. Single expression.
3. Don't ever dare to use it.

P.S. This is a solution working in both versions of Python. I know that Python 3 has this {**x, **y} thing and it is the right thing to use (as well as moving to Python 3 if you still have Python 2 is the right thing to do).

I benchmarked the suggested with perfplot and found that the good old

temp = x.copy()
temp.update(y)

is the fastest solution together with the new

x | y

Code to reproduce the plot:

from collections import ChainMap
from itertools import chain
import perfplot


def setup(n):
    x = dict(zip(range(n), range(n)))
    y = dict(zip(range(n, 2 * n), range(n, 2 * n)))
    return x, y


def copy_update(data):
    x, y = data
    temp = x.copy()
    temp.update(y)
    return temp


def add_items(data):
    x, y = data
    return dict(list(x.items()) + list(y.items()))


def curly_star(data):
    x, y = data
    return {**x, **y}


def chain_map(data):
    x, y = data
    return dict(ChainMap({}, y, x))


def itertools_chain(data):
    x, y = data
    return dict(chain(x.items(), y.items()))


def python39_concat(data):
    x, y = data
    return x | y


perfplot.show(
    setup=setup,
    kernels=[
        copy_update,
        add_items,
        curly_star,
        chain_map,
        itertools_chain,
        python39_concat,
    ],
    labels=[
        "copy_update",
        "dict(list(x.items()) + list(y.items()))",
        "{**x, **y}",
        "chain_map",
        "itertools.chain",
        "x | y",
    ],
    n_range=[2 ** k for k in range(15)],
    xlabel="len(x), len(y)",
    equality_check=None,
)

A union of the OP's two dictionaries would be something like:

{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 10, 'c': 11}

Specifically, the union of two entities(x and y) contains all the elements of x and/or y. Unfortunately, what the OP asks for is not a union, despite the title of the post.

My code below is neither elegant nor a one-liner, but I believe it is consistent with the meaning of union.

From the OP's example:

x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}

z = {}
for k, v in x.items():
    if not k in z:
        z[k] = [(v)]
    else:
        z[k].append((v))
for k, v in y.items():
    if not k in z:
        z[k] = [(v)]
    else:
        z[k].append((v))

{'a': [1], 'b': [2, 10], 'c': [11]}

Whether one wants lists could be changed, but the above will work if a dictionary contains lists (and nested lists) as values in either dictionary.

Using a dict comprehension, you may

x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}

dc = {xi:(x[xi] if xi not in list(y.keys()) 
           else y[xi]) for xi in list(x.keys())+(list(y.keys()))}

gives

>>> dc
{'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 10}

Note the syntax for if else in comprehension

{ (some_key if condition else default_key):(something_if_true if condition 
          else something_if_false) for key, value in dict_.items() }

I know this does not really fit the specifics of the questions ("one liner"), but since none of the answers above went into this direction while lots and lots of answers addressed the performance issue, I felt I should contribute my thoughts.

Depending on the use case it might not be necessary to create a "real" merged dictionary of the given input dictionaries. A view which does this might be sufficient in many cases, i. e. an object which acts like the merged dictionary would without computing it completely. A lazy version of the merged dictionary, so to speak.

In Python, this is rather simple and can be done with the code shown at the end of my post. This given, the answer to the original question would be:

z = MergeDict(x, y)

When using this new object, it will behave like a merged dictionary but it will have constant creation time and constant memory footprint while leaving the original dictionaries untouched. Creating it is way cheaper than in the other solutions proposed.

Of course, if you use the result a lot, then you will at some point reach the limit where creating a real merged dictionary would have been the faster solution. As I said, it depends on your use case.

If you ever felt you would prefer to have a real merged dict, then calling dict(z) would produce it (but way more costly than the other solutions of course, so this is just worth mentioning).

You can also use this class to make a kind of copy-on-write dictionary:

a = { 'x': 3, 'y': 4 }
b = MergeDict(a)  # we merge just one dict
b['x'] = 5
print b  # will print {'x': 5, 'y': 4}
print a  # will print {'y': 4, 'x': 3}

Here's the straight-forward code of MergeDict:

class MergeDict(object):
  def __init__(self, *originals):
    self.originals = ({},) + originals[::-1]  # reversed

  def __getitem__(self, key):
    for original in self.originals:
      try:
        return original[key]
      except KeyError:
        pass
    raise KeyError(key)

  def __setitem__(self, key, value):
    self.originals[0][key] = value

  def __iter__(self):
    return iter(self.keys())

  def __repr__(self):
    return '%s(%s)' % (
      self.__class__.__name__,
      ', '.join(repr(original)
          for original in reversed(self.originals)))

  def __str__(self):
    return '{%s}' % ', '.join(
        '%r: %r' % i for i in self.iteritems())

  def iteritems(self):
    found = set()
    for original in self.originals:
      for k, v in original.iteritems():
        if k not in found:
          yield k, v
          found.add(k)

  def items(self):
    return list(self.iteritems())

  def keys(self):
    return list(k for k, _ in self.iteritems())

  def values(self):
    return list(v for _, v in self.iteritems())

Simple solution using itertools that preserves order (latter dicts have precedence)

# py2
from itertools import chain, imap
merge = lambda *args: dict(chain.from_iterable(imap(dict.iteritems, args)))

# py3
from itertools import chain
merge = lambda *args: dict(chain.from_iterable(map(dict.items, args)))

And it's usage:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> merge(x, y)
{'a': 1, 'b': 10, 'c': 11}

>>> z = {'c': 3, 'd': 4}
>>> merge(x, y, z)
{'a': 1, 'b': 10, 'c': 3, 'd': 4}

If you don't mind mutating x,

x.update(y) or x

Simple, readable, performant. You know update() always returns None, which is a false value. So the above expression will always evaluate to x, after updating it.

Most mutating methods in the standard library (like .update()) return None by convention, so this kind of pattern will work on those too. However, if you're using a dict subclass or some other method that doesn't follow this convention, then or may return its left operand, which may not be what you want. Instead, you can use a tuple display and index, which works regardless of what the first element evaluates to (although it's not quite as pretty):

(x.update(y), x)[-1]

If you don't have x in a variable yet, you can use lambda to make a local without using an assignment statement. This amounts to using lambda as a let expression, which is a common technique in functional languages, but maybe unpythonic.

(lambda x: x.update(y) or x)({'a': 1, 'b': 2})

Although it's not that different from the following use of the new walrus operator (Python 3.8+ only):

(x := {'a': 1, 'b': 2}).update(y) or x

If you do want a copy, PEP 584 style x | y is the most Pythonic on 3.9+. If you must support older versions, PEP 448 style {**x, **y} is easiest for 3.5+. But if that's not available in your (even older) Python version, the let pattern works here too.

(lambda z: z.update(y) or z)(x.copy())

(That is, of course, nearly equivalent to (z := x.copy()).update(y) or z, but if your Python version is new enough for that, then the PEP 448 style will be available.)

In Python 3.0 and later, you can use collections.ChainMap which groups multiple dicts or other mappings together to create a single, updateable view:

>>> from collections import ChainMap
>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> z = dict(ChainMap({}, y, x))
>>> for k, v in z.items():
        print(k, '-->', v)
    
a --> 1
b --> 10
c --> 11

Update for Python 3.5 and later: You can use PEP 448 extended dictionary packing and unpacking. This is fast and easy:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> {**x, **y}
{'a': 1, 'b': 10, 'c': 11}

Update for Python 3.9 and later: You can use the PEP 584 union operator:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> x | y
{'a': 1, 'b': 10, 'c': 11}

Python 3.5 (PEP 448) allows a nicer syntax option:

x = {'a': 1, 'b': 1}
y = {'a': 2, 'c': 2}
final = {**x, **y} 
final
# {'a': 2, 'b': 1, 'c': 2}

Or even

final = {'a': 1, 'b': 1, **x, **y}

In Python 3.9 you also use | and |= with the below example from PEP 584

d = {'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'cheese': 3}
e = {'cheese': 'cheddar', 'aardvark': 'Ethel'}
d | e
# {'spam': 1, 'eggs': 2, 'cheese': 'cheddar', 'aardvark': 'Ethel'}

In a follow-up answer, you asked about the relative performance of these two alternatives:

z1 = dict(x.items() + y.items())
z2 = dict(x, **y)

On my machine, at least (a fairly ordinary x86_64 running Python 2.5.2), alternative z2 is not only shorter and simpler but also significantly faster. You can verify this for yourself using the timeit module that comes with Python.

Example 1: identical dictionaries mapping 20 consecutive integers to themselves:

% python -m timeit -s 'x=y=dict((i,i) for i in range(20))' 'z1=dict(x.items() + y.items())'
100000 loops, best of 3: 5.67 usec per loop
% python -m timeit -s 'x=y=dict((i,i) for i in range(20))' 'z2=dict(x, **y)' 
100000 loops, best of 3: 1.53 usec per loop

z2 wins by a factor of 3.5 or so. Different dictionaries seem to yield quite different results, but z2 always seems to come out ahead. (If you get inconsistent results for the same test, try passing in -r with a number larger than the default 3.)

Example 2: non-overlapping dictionaries mapping 252 short strings to integers and vice versa:

% python -m timeit -s 'from htmlentitydefs import codepoint2name as x, name2codepoint as y' 'z1=dict(x.items() + y.items())'
1000 loops, best of 3: 260 usec per loop
% python -m timeit -s 'from htmlentitydefs import codepoint2name as x, name2codepoint as y' 'z2=dict(x, **y)'               
10000 loops, best of 3: 26.9 usec per loop

z2 wins by about a factor of 10. That's a pretty big win in my book!

After comparing those two, I wondered if z1's poor performance could be attributed to the overhead of constructing the two item lists, which in turn led me to wonder if this variation might work better:

from itertools import chain
z3 = dict(chain(x.iteritems(), y.iteritems()))

A few quick tests, e.g.

% python -m timeit -s 'from itertools import chain; from htmlentitydefs import codepoint2name as x, name2codepoint as y' 'z3=dict(chain(x.iteritems(), y.iteritems()))'
10000 loops, best of 3: 66 usec per loop

lead me to conclude that z3 is somewhat faster than z1, but not nearly as fast as z2. Definitely not worth all the extra typing.

This discussion is still missing something important, which is a performance comparison of these alternatives with the "obvious" way of merging two lists: using the update method. To try to keep things on an equal footing with the expressions, none of which modify x or y, I'm going to make a copy of x instead of modifying it in-place, as follows:

z0 = dict(x)
z0.update(y)

A typical result:

% python -m timeit -s 'from htmlentitydefs import codepoint2name as x, name2codepoint as y' 'z0=dict(x); z0.update(y)'
10000 loops, best of 3: 26.9 usec per loop

In other words, z0 and z2 seem to have essentially identical performance. Do you think this might be a coincidence? I don't....

In fact, I'd go so far as to claim that it's impossible for pure Python code to do any better than this. And if you can do significantly better in a C extension module, I imagine the Python folks might well be interested in incorporating your code (or a variation on your approach) into the Python core. Python uses dict in lots of places; optimizing its operations is a big deal.

You could also write this as

z0 = x.copy()
z0.update(y)

as Tony does, but (not surprisingly) the difference in notation turns out not to have any measurable effect on performance. Use whichever looks right to you. Of course, he's absolutely correct to point out that the two-statement version is much easier to understand.

A hacky one-liner for 2.5+ :

>>> a = dict(x=2, y=3)
>>> b = dict(y=4, z=5)
>>> c = 'No Effect' if a.update(b) else a
>>> c
{'x': 2, 'y': 4, 'z': 5}

Things to keep in mind:

• dict.update modifies the dict in-place, hence it evaluates to None
• In expression A if C else B, C is evaluated first. See here

So here, a.update(b) is evaluated first, a gets updated with b and operation results in None, thus the expression will always return the value given in the else condition, i.e. a. Since, a is already modified, it will return the new value of a, which is the updated dict.

IMPROVEMENT

This can be further improved, and it be made to work for even older versions (probably python 1.0 as well?):

>>> c = a.update(b) or a

Here also, the first part produces None, hence it always returns the second part, but as the update operation is already done, it always returns the updated dict.

CRITIQUE

• Both the solution modify the value of a, so if one wants to keep both the input dictionaries unchanged, this is not a good idea.

IMPROVEMENT

If copy of a is needed, the second one can be slightly modified:

>>> a = dict(x=2, y=3)
>>> b = dict(y=4, z=5)
>>> a, c = a.copy(), a.update(b) or a
>>> c
{'x': 2, 'y': 4, 'z': 5}
>>> d = dict(m=10, n=11)
>>> a, c = a.copy(), a.update(b) or a.update(d) or a
>>> c
{'x': 2, 'y': 4, 'z': 5, 'm': 10, 'n': 11}
>>> a
{'x': 2, 'y': 4}

CAVEATS

• It (especially the first one) gets ugly and impractical for any number of dicts greater than 2
• Furthermore, this is not explicit, which is un-pythonic.

Even though these solutions are extremely fast, especially the or method which is probably faster than the new python 3.9 union operator (not entirely sure, further testing required, if anyone wants to add it afterwards, they are welcome), I would not recommend these methods due to the abovementioned reasons. Added it for the sake of completeness.

You can use toolz.merge([x, y]) for this.

New in Python 3.9: Use the union operator (|) to merge dicts similar to sets:

>>> d = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
>>> e = {'a': 9, 'c': 3}
>>> d | e
{'a': 9, 'b': 2, 'c': 3}

For matching keys, the right dict takes precedence.

This also works for |= to modify a dict in-place:

>>> e |= d    # e = e | d
>>> e
{'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 2}

If you think lambdas are evil then read no further. As requested, you can write the fast and memory-efficient solution with one expression:

x = {'a':1, 'b':2}
y = {'b':10, 'c':11}
z = (lambda a, b: (lambda a_copy: a_copy.update(b) or a_copy)(a.copy()))(x, y)
print z
{'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 10}
print x
{'a': 1, 'b': 2}

As suggested above, using two lines or writing a function is probably a better way to go.

Some ways to solve it without using any python modules (no dependencies) with few lines of codes.

ALL Python Versions (using Lambda):

merge_dicts = lambda old, new: old.update(new) or old

Python Version >= 3.5:

def merge_dicts(old, new):
    return {**old, **new} 

Older Python Version:

def merge_dicts(old, new):
    merged = old.copy()
    merged.update(new)
    return merged

This example will merge old and new while erasing old values with the new values.

USAGE:

old = {'name': 'Kevin', 'phone_number': '+33 12 34 45 67'}
new = {'name': 'Kevin', 'phone_number': '+33 88 88 88 88'}

print(merge_dicts(old, new))

OUTPUT:

{'name': 'Kevin', 'phone_number': '+33 88 88 88 88'}

IF you have to deal with multiples merged from old to new version, without losing any data one example approach below using an array of dictionaries:

ALL Python Versions:

def merge_dicts(old, news):
    merged = old.copy()
    for new in news:
        merged.update(new)
    return merged

USAGE:

old = {'name': 'Kevin', 'phone_number': '+33 12 34 45 67'}
new_01 = {'name': 'Kevin', 'phone_number': '+33 77 77 77 77', 'age': 28}
new_02 = {'name': 'SabK', 'phone_number': '+33 88 88 88 89'}
new_03 = {'phone_number': '+33 99 99 99 99'}

print(merge_dicts(old, [new_01, new_02, new_03]))

OUTPUT:

{'phone_number': '+33 99 99 99 99', 'age': 28, 'name': 'SabK'}

In this example, the new dictionary will be generated from the old one (first argument) and then will update sequentially from the first element of the array to the last one (new_01 > new_02 > new_03)

At the end, you will get all the datas from all the dictionary will updating values that as been change. This function can be really useful when you have deal with datas that change frequently.

I was curious if I could beat the accepted answer's time with a one line stringify approach:

I tried 5 methods, none previously mentioned - all one liner - all producing correct answers - and I couldn't come close.

So... to save you the trouble and perhaps fulfill curiosity:

import json
import yaml
import time
from ast import literal_eval as literal

def merge_two_dicts(x, y):
    z = x.copy()   # start with x's keys and values
    z.update(y)    # modifies z with y's keys and values & returns None
    return z

x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}

start = time.time()
for i in range(10000):
    z = yaml.load((str(x)+str(y)).replace('}{',', '))
elapsed = (time.time()-start)
print (elapsed, z, 'stringify yaml')

start = time.time()
for i in range(10000):
    z = literal((str(x)+str(y)).replace('}{',', '))
elapsed = (time.time()-start)
print (elapsed, z, 'stringify literal')

start = time.time()
for i in range(10000):
    z = eval((str(x)+str(y)).replace('}{',', '))
elapsed = (time.time()-start)
print (elapsed, z, 'stringify eval')

start = time.time()
for i in range(10000):
    z = {k:int(v) for k,v in (dict(zip(
            ((str(x)+str(y))
            .replace('}',' ')
            .replace('{',' ')
            .replace(':',' ')
            .replace(',',' ')
            .replace("'",'')
            .strip()
            .split('  '))[::2], 
            ((str(x)+str(y))
            .replace('}',' ')
            .replace('{',' ').replace(':',' ')
            .replace(',',' ')
            .replace("'",'')
            .strip()
            .split('  '))[1::2]
             ))).items()}
elapsed = (time.time()-start)
print (elapsed, z, 'stringify replace')

start = time.time()
for i in range(10000):
    z = json.loads(str((str(x)+str(y)).replace('}{',', ').replace("'",'"')))
elapsed = (time.time()-start)
print (elapsed, z, 'stringify json')

start = time.time()
for i in range(10000):
    z = merge_two_dicts(x, y)
elapsed = (time.time()-start)
print (elapsed, z, 'accepted')

results:

7.693928956985474 {'c': 11, 'b': 10, 'a': 1} stringify yaml
0.29134678840637207 {'c': 11, 'b': 10, 'a': 1} stringify literal
0.2208399772644043 {'c': 11, 'b': 10, 'a': 1} stringify eval
0.1106564998626709 {'c': 11, 'b': 10, 'a': 1} stringify replace
0.07989692687988281 {'c': 11, 'b': 10, 'a': 1} stringify json
0.005082368850708008 {'c': 11, 'b': 10, 'a': 1} accepted

What I did learn from this is that JSON approach is the fastest way (of those attempted) to return a dictionary from string-of-dictionary; much faster (about 1/4th of the time) of what I considered to be the normal method using ast. I also learned that, the YAML approach should be avoided at all cost.

Yes, I understand that this is not the best/correct way. I was curious if it was faster, and it isn't; I posted to prove it so.

As of Python 3.9, PEP584, there is a new method available for this:

z = x.union(y)

now works as you desire, without modifying either x or y.

y values will override x values with the same key.

You can also now use the union merge syntax for this:

z = x | y

which gives the same result.

Abuse leading to a one-expression solution for Matthew's answer:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> z = (lambda f=x.copy(): (f.update(y), f)[1])()
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 10}

You said you wanted one expression, so I abused lambda to bind a name, and tuples to override lambda's one-expression limit. Feel free to cringe.

You could also do this of course if you don't care about copying it:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> z = (x.update(y), x)[1]
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'b': 10, 'c': 11}

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> x, z = dict(x), x.update(y) or x
>>> x
{'a': 1, 'b': 2}
>>> y
{'c': 11, 'b': 10}
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 10}

While the question has already been answered several times, this simple solution to the problem has not been listed yet.

x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
z4 = {}
z4.update(x)
z4.update(y)

It is as fast as z0 and the evil z2 mentioned above, but easy to understand and change.

I wanted something similar, but with the ability to specify how the values on duplicate keys were merged, so I hacked this out (but did not heavily test it). Obviously this is not a single expression, but it is a single function call.

def merge(d1, d2, merge_fn=lambda x,y:y):
    """
    Merges two dictionaries, non-destructively, combining 
    values on duplicate keys as defined by the optional merge
    function.  The default behavior replaces the values in d1
    with corresponding values in d2.  (There is no other generally
    applicable merge strategy, but often you'll have homogeneous 
    types in your dicts, so specifying a merge technique can be 
    valuable.)

    Examples:

    >>> d1
    {'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 2}
    >>> merge(d1, d1)
    {'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 2}
    >>> merge(d1, d1, lambda x,y: x+y)
    {'a': 2, 'c': 6, 'b': 4}

    """
    result = dict(d1)
    for k,v in d2.iteritems():
        if k in result:
            result[k] = merge_fn(result[k], v)
        else:
            result[k] = v
    return result

This can be done with a single dict comprehension:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> { key: y[key] if key in y else x[key]
      for key in set(x) + set(y)
    }

In my view the best answer for the 'single expression' part as no extra functions are needed, and it is short.

In Python 3.9

Based on PEP 584, the new version of Python introduces two new operators for dictionaries: union (|) and in-place union (|=). You can use | to merge two dictionaries, while |= will update a dictionary in place:

>>> pycon = {2016: "Portland", 2018: "Cleveland"}
>>> europython = {2017: "Rimini", 2018: "Edinburgh", 2019: "Basel"}

>>> pycon | europython
{2016: 'Portland', 2018: 'Edinburgh', 2017: 'Rimini', 2019: 'Basel'}

>>> pycon |= europython
>>> pycon
{2016: 'Portland', 2018: 'Edinburgh', 2017: 'Rimini', 2019: 'Basel'}

If d1 and d2 are two dictionaries, then d1 | d2 does the same as {**d1, **d2}. The | operator is used for calculating the union of sets, so the notation may already be familiar to you.

One advantage of using | is that it works on different dictionary-like types and keeps the type through the merge:

>>> from collections import defaultdict
>>> europe = defaultdict(lambda: "", {"Norway": "Oslo", "Spain": "Madrid"})
>>> africa = defaultdict(lambda: "", {"Egypt": "Cairo", "Zimbabwe": "Harare"})

>>> europe | africa
defaultdict(<function <lambda> at 0x7f0cb42a6700>,
  {'Norway': 'Oslo', 'Spain': 'Madrid', 'Egypt': 'Cairo', 'Zimbabwe': 'Harare'})

>>> {**europe, **africa}
{'Norway': 'Oslo', 'Spain': 'Madrid', 'Egypt': 'Cairo', 'Zimbabwe': 'Harare'}

You can use a defaultdict when you want to effectively handle missing keys. Note that | preserves the defaultdict, while {**europe, **africa} does not.

There are some similarities between how | works for dictionaries and how + works for lists. In fact, the + operator was originally proposed to merge dictionaries as well. This correspondence becomes even more evident when you look at the in-place operator.

The basic use of |= is to update a dictionary in place, similar to .update():

>>> libraries = {
...     "collections": "Container datatypes",
...     "math": "Mathematical functions",
... }
>>> libraries |= {"zoneinfo": "IANA time zone support"}
>>> libraries
{'collections': 'Container datatypes', 'math': 'Mathematical functions',
 'zoneinfo': 'IANA time zone support'}

When you merge dictionaries with |, both dictionaries need to be of a proper dictionary type. On the other hand, the in-place operator (|=) is happy to work with any dictionary-like data structure:

>>> libraries |= [("graphlib", "Functionality for graph-like structures")]
>>> libraries
{'collections': 'Container datatypes', 'math': 'Mathematical functions',
 'zoneinfo': 'IANA time zone support',
 'graphlib': 'Functionality for graph-like structures'}

(For Python2.7* only; there are simpler solutions for Python3*.)

If you're not averse to importing a standard library module, you can do

from functools import reduce

def merge_dicts(*dicts):
    return reduce(lambda a, d: a.update(d) or a, dicts, {})

(The or a bit in the lambda is necessary because dict.update always returns None on success.)

x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
z = dict(x.items() + y.items())
print z

For items with keys in both dictionaries ('b'), you can control which one ends up in the output by putting that one last.

The question is tagged python-3x but, taking into account that it's a relatively recent addition and that the most voted, accepted answer deals extensively with a Python 2.x solution, I dare add a one liner that draws on an irritating feature of Python 2.x list comprehension, that is name leaking...

$ python2
Python 2.7.13 (default, Jan 19 2017, 14:48:08) 
[GCC 6.3.0 20170118] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> [z.update(d) for z in [{}] for d in (x, y)]
[None, None]
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 10}
>>> ...

I'm happy to say that the above doesn't work any more on any version of Python 3.

Instead, if, say, you want to combine the two dictionaries by adding the values, we could rely on the Collections module (I am not sure whether this existed 12 years ago - when the question was first asked):

from collections import Counter
x = Counter({'a': 1, 'b': 2})
y = Counter({'b': 10, 'c': 11})

Then x + y equates to

Counter({'a': 1, 'b': 12, 'c': 11})

An alternative:

z = x.copy()
z.update(y)

It's so silly that .update returns nothing.
I just use a simple helper function to solve the problem:

def merge(dict1,*dicts):
    for dict2 in dicts:
        dict1.update(dict2)
    return dict1

Examples:

merge(dict1,dict2)
merge(dict1,dict2,dict3)
merge(dict1,dict2,dict3,dict4)
merge({},dict1,dict2)  # this one returns a new copy

In your case, what you can do is:

z = dict(list(x.items()) + list(y.items()))

This will, as you want it, put the final dict in z, and make the value for key b be properly overridden by the second (y) dict's value:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> z = dict(list(x.items()) + list(y.items()))
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 10}

If you use Python 2, you can even remove the list() calls. To create z:

>>> z = dict(x.items() + y.items())
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 10}

If you use Python version 3.9.0a4 or greater, then you can directly use:

x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
z = x | y
print(z)

{'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 10}

For Python 3:

from collections import ChainMap
a = {"a":1, "b":2}
b = {"c":5, "d":8}
dict(ChainMap(a, b))  # {"a":1, "b":2, "c":5, "d":8}

If you have the same key in both dictionaries, ChainMap will use the first key's value and ignores the second key's value. Cheers!

Two dictionaries

def union2(dict1, dict2):
    return dict(list(dict1.items()) + list(dict2.items()))

n dictionaries

def union(*dicts):
    return dict(itertools.chain.from_iterable(dct.items() for dct in dicts))

sum has bad performance. See https://mathieularose.com/how-not-to-flatten-a-list-of-lists-in-python/

The best version I could think while not using copy would be:

from itertools import chain
x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
dict(chain(x.iteritems(), y.iteritems()))

It's faster than dict(x.items() + y.items()) but not as fast as n = copy(a); n.update(b), at least on CPython. This version also works in Python 3 if you change iteritems() to items(), which is automatically done by the 2to3 tool.

Personally I like this version best because it describes fairly good what I want in a single functional syntax. The only minor problem is that it doesn't make completely obvious that values from y takes precedence over values from x, but I don't believe it's difficult to figure that out.