The function I am using to convert my data frame into a nested dictionary strips the column names from the hierarchy, making the dictionary diffictult to naviagte.

I have a large dataframe that looks similar to ths:

exploded_df = pd.DataFrame({
    'school_code': [1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2,  2, 2],
    'school_name': ['A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'B', 'B', 'B', 'B'],
    'district_code': [10, 10, 10, 10, 20, 20,  20, 20],
    'year': [2022, 2022, 2023, 2023, 2022, 2022, 2023, 2023],
    'source': ['S1', 'S2', 'S1', 'S2','S1', 'S2', 'S1', 'S2'],
    'enrollment_measure_name': ['M1', 'M2', 'M1', 'M2','M1', 'M2', 'M1', 'M2'],
    'value': [100, 150, 120, 170, 100, 150, 90, 100]
})

I have been trying to use the following function and several variations.

`def frame_to_nested_dict(exploded_df, levels):
    if not levels:
        return exploded_df.groupby('enrollment_measure_name')['value'].apply(list).to_dict()

    # Group by the highest level of keys and recursively build the nested dictionary
    level = levels[0]
    exploded_df = exploded_df.dropna(subset=[level])
    grouped = exploded_df.groupby(level)
    return {
        key: frame_to_nested_dict(group, levels[1:])
        for key, group in grouped
    }`

with

levels = ['school_code', 'school_name', 'district_code', 'year', 'source']
frame_to_nested_dict(exploded_df, levels)

output:

{1: {'A': {10: {2022: {'S1': {'M1': [100]}, 'S2': {'M2': [150]}}, 2023: {'S1': {'M1': [120]}, 'S2': {'M2': [170]}}}}}, 2: {'B': {20: {2022: {'S1': {'M1': [100]}, 'S2': {'M2': [150]}}, 2023: {'S1': {'M1': [90]}, 'S2': {'M2': [100]}}}}}}

The desired output would be:

{
    'school_code': {
        1: {
            'school_name': {
                'A': {
                    'district_code': {
                        10: {
                            'year': {
                                2022: {
                                    'source': {
                                        'S1': {
                                            'enrollment_measure_name': {
                                                'M1': {'value': [100]}
                                            }
                                        },
                                        'S2': {
                                            'enrollment_measure_name': {
                                                'M2': {'value': [150]}
                                            }
                                        }
                                    }
                                },
                                2023: {
                                    'source': {
                                        'S1': {
                                            'enrollment_measure_name': {
                                                'M1': {'value': [120]}
                                            }
                                        },
                                        'S2': {
                                            'enrollment_measure_name': {
                                                'M2': {'value': [170]}
                                            }
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        2: {
            'school_name': {
                'B': {
                    'district_code': {
                        20: {
                            'year': {
                                2022: {
                                    'source': {
                                        'S1': {
                                            'enrollment_measure_name': {
                                                'M1': {'value': [100]}
                                            }
                                        },
                                        'S2': {
                                            'enrollment_measure_name': {
                                                'M2': {'value': [150]}
                                            }
                                        }
                                    }
                                },
                                2023: {
                                    'source': {
                                        'S1': {
                                            'enrollment_measure_name': {
                                                'M1': {'value': [90]}
                                            }
                                        },
                                        'S2': {
                                            'enrollment_measure_name': {
                                                'M2': {'value': [100]}
                                            }
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}