Add functions for merging dicts of dicts, both in place and with a re…

…turn value. Use the return value function to correct the merging of Dicts in the wall_bc_inputs.jl file. Note that the behaviour of merge() on Dicts of Dicts is to replace values of keyword arguements which are themselves Dicts, hence the need for these functions. Presumably these functions could be improved by making them recursive to merge Dicts with arbitrary many levels of Dicts (if no base Julia solution is available).

moment_kinetics/debug_test/wall_bc_inputs.jl

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 test_type = "Wall boundary conditions"
 using moment_kinetics.type_definitions: OptionsDict
+using moment_kinetics.input_structs: merge_dict_of_dicts
 
 # default inputs for tests
 test_input_finite_difference_1D1V = OptionsDict(
@@ -45,10 +46,10 @@ test_input_finite_difference_1D1V = OptionsDict(
     "vr_ngrid" => 1,
     "vr_nelement" => 1)
 
-test_input_finite_difference_simple_sheath_1D1V = merge(
+test_input_finite_difference_simple_sheath_1D1V = merge_dict_of_dicts(
     test_input_finite_difference_1D1V,
     OptionsDict("run_name" => "finite_difference_simple_sheath_1D1V",
-         "electron_physics" => "boltzmann_electron_response_with_simple_sheath"))
+                "composition" => OptionsDict("electron_physics" => "boltzmann_electron_response_with_simple_sheath"))) 
 
 test_input_finite_difference = merge(
     test_input_finite_difference_1D1V,
@@ -69,10 +70,10 @@ test_input_finite_difference = merge(
          "vzeta_nelement" => 1,
          "vzeta_discretization" => "finite_difference"))
 
-test_input_finite_difference_simple_sheath = merge(
+test_input_finite_difference_simple_sheath = merge_dict_of_dicts(
     test_input_finite_difference,
     OptionsDict("run_name" => "finite_difference_simple_sheath",
-         "electron_physics" => "boltzmann_electron_response_with_simple_sheath"))
+         "composition" => OptionsDict("electron_physics" => "boltzmann_electron_response_with_simple_sheath")))
 
 test_input_chebyshev_1D1V = merge(
     test_input_finite_difference_1D1V,
@@ -100,10 +101,10 @@ test_input_chebyshev_split3_1D1V = merge(test_input_chebyshev_split2_1D1V,
                                           "evolve_moments_parallel_pressure" => true))
 
 
-test_input_chebyshev_simple_sheath_1D1V = merge(
+test_input_chebyshev_simple_sheath_1D1V = merge_dict_of_dicts(
     test_input_chebyshev_1D1V,
     OptionsDict("run_name" => "chebyshev_pseudospectral_simple_sheath_1D1V",
-         "electron_physics" => "boltzmann_electron_response_with_simple_sheath"))
+         "composition" => OptionsDict("electron_physics" => "boltzmann_electron_response_with_simple_sheath")))
 
 test_input_chebyshev = merge(
     test_input_chebyshev_1D1V,
@@ -124,10 +125,10 @@ test_input_chebyshev = merge(
          "vzeta_ngrid" => 3,
          "vzeta_nelement" => 1))
 
-test_input_chebyshev_simple_sheath = merge(
+test_input_chebyshev_simple_sheath = merge_dict_of_dicts(
     test_input_chebyshev,
     OptionsDict("run_name" => "chebyshev_pseudospectral_simple_sheath",
-         "electron_physics" => "boltzmann_electron_response_with_simple_sheath"))
+         "composition" => OptionsDict("electron_physics" => "boltzmann_electron_response_with_simple_sheath")))
 
 test_input_list = [
      #test_input_finite_difference,

moment_kinetics/src/input_structs.jl

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ export pp_input
 export geometry_input
 export set_defaults_and_check_top_level!, set_defaults_and_check_section!,
        options_to_TOML, Dict_to_NamedTuple
-export merge_dict_with_kwargs!
+export merge_dict_with_kwargs!, merge_dict_of_dicts!, merge_dict_of_dicts
 
 using ..communication
 using ..type_definitions: mk_float, mk_int
@@ -850,6 +850,39 @@ function merge_dict_with_kwargs!(dict_base; args...)
     return nothing
 end
 
+"""
+Dict merge function for merging Dicts of Dicts
+In place merge, returns nothing 
+"""
+
+function merge_dict_of_dicts!(dict_base, dict_mod)
+    for (k,v) in dict_mod
+        k = String(k)
+        if k in keys(dict_base) && isa(v, AbstractDict)
+            v = merge(dict_base[k], v)
+        end
+        dict_base[k] = v
+    end
+    return nothing
+end
+
+"""
+Dict merge function for merging Dicts of Dicts
+Creates new dict, which is returned 
+"""
+
+function merge_dict_of_dicts(dict_base, dict_mod)
+    dict_new = deepcopy(dict_base)
+    for (k,v) in dict_mod
+        k = String(k)
+        if k in keys(dict_new) && isa(v, AbstractDict)
+            v = merge(dict_new[k], v)
+        end
+        dict_new[k] = v
+    end
+    return dict_new
+end
+
 """
     options_to_toml(io::IO [=stdout], data::AbstractDict; sorted=false, by=identity)