Convert an HL7 message to a dictionary.

hl7_to_dict.py

"""Converting HL7 messages to dictionaries

Example Usage:

    import pprint
    from hl7apy.parser import parse_message

    # Taken from http://hl7apy.org/tutorial/index.html#elements-manipulation
    s = """MSH|^~\&|GHH_ADT||||20080115153000||ADT^A01^ADT_A01|0123456789|P|2.5||||AL
    EVN||20080115153000||AAA|AAA|20080114003000
    PID|1||566-554-3423^^^GHH^MR||EVERYMAN^ADAM^A|||M|||2222 HOME STREET^^ANN ARBOR^MI^^USA||555-555-2004~444-333-222|||M
    NK1|1|NUCLEAR^NELDA^W|SPO|2222 HOME STREET^^ANN ARBOR^MI^^USA"""

    pprint.pprint(hl7_str_to_dict(s))

Yup, it's as simple as that.
"""

from hl7apy.parser import parse_message


def hl7_str_to_dict(s, use_long_name=True):
    """Convert an HL7 string to a dictionary

    :param s: The input HL7 string
    :param use_long_name: Whether or not to user the long names
                          (e.g. "patient_name" instead of "pid_5")
    :returns: A dictionary representation of the HL7 message
    """
    s = s.replace("\n", "\r")
    m = parse_message(s)
    return hl7_message_to_dict(m, use_long_name=use_long_name)


def hl7_message_to_dict(m, use_long_name=True):
    """Convert an HL7 message to a dictionary

    :param m: The HL7 message as returned by :func:`hl7apy.parser.parse_message`
    :param use_long_name: Whether or not to user the long names
                          (e.g. "patient_name" instead of "pid_5")
    :returns: A dictionary representation of the HL7 message
    """
    if m.children:
        d = {}
        for c in m.children:
            name = str(c.name).lower()
            if use_long_name:
                name = str(c.long_name).lower() if c.long_name else name
            dictified = hl7_message_to_dict(c, use_long_name=use_long_name)
            if name in d:
                if not isinstance(d[name], list):
                    d[name] = [d[name]]
                d[name].append(dictified)
            else:
                d[name] = dictified
        return d
    else:
        return m.to_er7()