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def group_by_excluding_key(list_of_dicts, key_field):
    """
    Takes a list of `dict` items and groups by ALL KEYS in the dict EXCEPT the key_field.
    :param list_of_dicts: List of dicts to group
    :param key_field: key field in dict which should be excluded from the grouping
    """

    output = []

    for item in list_of_dicts:
 
        found = False
        search_group = {k: v for k, v in item.items() if k != key_field}
        item_value = item[key_field]

        for existing_group, found_keys in output:
            if existing_group.viewitems() == search_group.viewitems():
                found_keys.append(item_value)
                found = True

        if not found:
            output.append((search_group, [item_value]))

    return output

def group_by_excluding_key(list_of_dicts, key_field):
    """
    Takes a list of `dict` items and groups by ALL KEYS in the dict EXCEPT the key_field.
    :param list_of_dicts: List of dicts to group
    :param key_field: key field in dict which should be excluded from the grouping
    """

    output = []

    for item in list_of_dicts:
        found = False
        item_key = item.pop(key_field)

        for existing_group, found_keys in output:
            if existing_group.viewitems() == item.viewitems():
                found_keys.append(item_key)
                found = True
                break

        if not found:
            output.append((item, [item_key]))

    return output

I couldn't find a thing on Google, so I wrote it pretty quickly, and I am wondering if there is a better way to do this (or a standard library even).

• Naming things is hard... what is a better one?
• This is a task I performed fairly often when receiving user input
• The keys in each dict may not be consistent (some may be missing)
• It is OK to destroy or mangle the original input list & items
• Validation is done before calling, so 'key_field' is always present
• It is expected that values can be duplicated in the list
• { status: 1 } => [1,2,3,4,1,2] is ok, if the values are actually present twice.

Simple little Python function:

I couldn't find a thing on google, so I wrote it pretty quickly, and I am wondering if there is a better way to do this (or a standard library even)

• Naming things is hard... what is a better one?
• This is a task I performed fairly often when receiving user input
• The keys in each dict may not be consistent (some may be missing)
• It is OK to destroy or mangle the original input list & items
• Validation is done before calling, so 'key_field' is always present
• It is expected that values can be duplicated in the list.
• { status: 1 } => [1,2,3,4,1,2] is ok, if the values are actually present twice.

Simple little python function:

I couldn't find a thing on google, so I wrote it pretty quickly, and I am wondering if there is a better way to do this (or a standard library even)

• Naming things is hard... what is a better one?
• This is a task I performed fairly often when receiving user input
• The keys in each dict may not be consistent (some may be missing)
• It is OK to destroy or mangle the original input list & items
• Validation is done before calling, so 'key_field' is always present
• It is expected that values can be duplicated in the list.
• { status: 1 } => [1,2,3,4,1,2] is ok, if the values are actually present twice.

Simple little python function:

I couldn't find a thing on Google, so I wrote it pretty quickly, and I am wondering if there is a better way to do this (or a standard library even).

• Naming things is hard... what is a better one?
• This is a task I performed fairly often when receiving user input
• The keys in each dict may not be consistent (some may be missing)
• It is OK to destroy or mangle the original input list & items
• Validation is done before calling, so 'key_field' is always present
• It is expected that values can be duplicated in the list
• { status: 1 } => [1,2,3,4,1,2] is ok, if the values are actually present twice.

Simple little Python function: