Abuse leading to a one-expression solution for Matthew's answer:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> z = (lambda f=x.copy(): (f.update(y), f)[1])()
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 10}

You said you wanted one expression, so I abused lambda to bind a name, and tuples to override lambda's one-expression limit. Feel free to cringe.

You could also do this of course if you don't care about copying it:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> z = (x.update(y), x)[1]
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'b': 10, 'c': 11}

Abuse leading to a one-expression solution for Matthew's answer:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> z = (lambda f=x.copy(): (f.update(y), f)[1])()
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 10}

You said you wanted one expression, so I abused lambda to bind a name, and tuples to override lambda's one-expression limit. Feel free to cringe.

You could also do this of course if you don't care about copying it:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> z = (x.update(y), x)[1]
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'b': 10, 'c': 11}

Abuse leading to a one-expression solution for Matthew's answer:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> z = (lambda f=x.copy(): (f.update(y), f)[1])()
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 10}

You said you wanted one expression... so I abused lambda to bind a name, and tuples to override lambda's one-expression limit... feel free to cringe =).

You could also do this of course if you don't care about copying it:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> z = (x.update(y), x)[1]
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'b': 10, 'c': 11}

Abuse leading to a one-expression solution for Matthew's answer:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> z = (lambda f=x.copy(): (f.update(y), f)[1])()
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'c': 11, 'b': 10}

You said you wanted one expression, so I abused lambda to bind a name, and tuples to override lambda's one-expression limit. Feel free to cringe.

You could also do this of course if you don't care about copying it:

>>> x = {'a':1, 'b': 2}
>>> y = {'b':10, 'c': 11}
>>> z = (x.update(y), x)[1]
>>> z
{'a': 1, 'b': 10, 'c': 11}