nestargs is a Python library that treats command line arguments as a hierarchical structure. The functionality for interpreting command line arguments is the same as argparse.

pip install nestargs

When defining command line arguments, use "." as the delimiter. to represent a variable hierarchy. The following code example defines an n and price variable in the apple hierarchy and another separate n and price variable in the banana hierarchy.

import nestargs

parser = nestargs.NestedArgumentParser()

parser.add_argument("--apple.n", type=int)
parser.add_argument("--apple.price", type=float)

parser.add_argument("--banana.n", type=int)
parser.add_argument("--banana.price", type=float)

args = parser.parse_args(
    ["--apple.n=2", "--apple.price=1.5", "--banana.n=3", "--banana.price=3.5"]
)
# => _NestedNamespace(apple=_NestedNamespace(n=2, price=1.5), banana=_NestedNamespace(n=3, price=3.5))

Variables obtained by parsing command line arguments can be referenced by hierarchy.

args.apple
# => _NestedNamespace(n=2, price=1.5)

Of course, you can also refer directly to variables lower down in the hierarchy.

args.apple.price
# => 1.5

When referring to each level of hierarchy, you can use vars to create a dictionary format.

vars(args.apple)
# => {'n': 2, 'price': 1.5}

The default namespace delimiter is "." but can be any other character. In that case, specify the delimiter in the NestedArgumentParser constructor argument.

import nestargs

parser = nestargs.NestedArgumentParser(delimiter="/")
parser.add_argument("--apple/n", type=int)

args = parser.parse_args(["--apple/n=1"])
# => _NestedNamespace(apple=_NestedNamespace(n=1))

However, references to variables must be separated by "." delimiter when referring to variables.

args.apple.n
# => 1