How can I change urlencode to python dictionary

Question

I have got data from POST like

first_name=jon&nick_name=harry

How can I change this to a python dictionary, like :

{
    "first_name":"jon",
    "nick_name":"harry"
}

Answer 1

>>> urlparse.parse_qs("first_name=jon&nick_name=harry")
{'nick_name': ['harry'], 'first_name': ['jon']}

Answer 2

If you trust that the URL arguments will always be properly formatted, this would be a minimal solution:

dict(pair.split("=") for pair in urlargs.split("&"))

In code that's going to be publicly accessible though, you'll probably want to use a library that does error checking. If you're using Django, you'll probably have access to them already in the dictionary-like object HttpRequest.POST.