title: Convert a list into a nested dictionary
body: <p>For example I have</p>
  
  <pre><code>x = ['a','b','c']
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I need to convert it to:</p>
  
  <pre><code>y['a']['b']['c'] = ''
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is that possible?</p>
  
  <p>For the background, I have a config file which contains dotted notation that points to a place in some json data. I'd like to use the dotted notation string to access that specific data in the json file. For example, in the config:</p>
  
  <pre><code>path_to_data = "user.name.first_name"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'd like my script to recognize that as:</p>
  
  <pre><code>json_data["user"]["name"]["first_name"]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>so I can get the value of the first_name field. I converted the original string into a list, and now I don't know how to convert it to a nested dict.</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT</strong>: There is an existing data structure that I need to apply the dict with. Let's say:</p>
  
  <pre><code>m = {'a': {'b': {'c': 'lolcat'}}}
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>so that</p>
  
  <pre><code>m['a']['b']['c']
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>gives me 'lolcat'. If I get the right dictionary structure (as some of the replies did), I would still need to apply this to the existing dictionary 'm'. </p>
  
  <p>So, again, I get this from a config file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>c = 'a.b.c'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>That I converted to a list, thinking this will make things easier:</p>
  
  <pre><code>x = ['a','b','c']
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Now I have a json-like data structure:</p>
  
  <pre><code>m = {'a': {'b': {'c': 'lolcat'}}}
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So the nested dict generated from 'x' should be able to traverse 'm' so that</p>
  
  <pre><code>m['a']['b']['c']
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>gets me the cat.</p>