Swift: Reading and writing to (possible) nested dictionaries for a given key path, using a recursive approach

DictionaryKeyPath.swift

// For details, see
// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/40261857/remove-nested-key-from-dictionary
import Foundation

extension Dictionary {       
    subscript(keyPath keyPath: String) -> Any? {
        get {
            guard let keyPath = Dictionary.keyPathKeys(forKeyPath: keyPath) 
                else { return nil }
            return getValue(forKeyPath: keyPath)
        }
        set {
            guard let keyPath = Dictionary.keyPathKeys(forKeyPath: keyPath),
                let newValue = newValue else { return }
            self.setValue(newValue, forKeyPath: keyPath)
        }
    }

    static private func keyPathKeys(forKeyPath: String) -> [Key]? {
        let keys = forKeyPath.components(separatedBy: ".")
            .reversed().flatMap({ $0 as? Key })
        return keys.isEmpty ? nil : keys
    }

    // recursively (attempt to) access queried subdictionaries
    // (keyPath will never be empty here; the explicit unwrapping is safe)
    private func getValue(forKeyPath keyPath: [Key]) -> Any? {
        guard let value = self[keyPath.last!] else { return nil }
        return keyPath.count == 1 ? value : (value as? [Key: Any])
                .flatMap { $0.getValue(forKeyPath: Array(keyPath.dropLast())) }
    }

    // recursively (attempt to) access the queried subdictionaries to
    // finally replace the "inner value", given that the key path is valid
    private mutating func setValue(_ value: Any, forKeyPath keyPath: [Key]) {
        guard self[keyPath.last!] != nil else { return }            
        if keyPath.count == 1 {
            (value as? Value).map { self[keyPath.last!] = $0 }
        }
        else if var subDict = self[keyPath.last!] as? [Key: Value] {
            subDict.setValue(value, forKeyPath: Array(keyPath.dropLast()))
            (subDict as? Value).map { self[keyPath.last!] = $0 }
        }
    }
}

/* ------------------------------------------------------------------ */
// example usage
var dict: [String: Any] = [
    "countries": [
        "japan": [
            "capital": [
                "name": "tokyo",
                "lat": "35.6895",
                "lon": "139.6917"
            ],
            "language": "japanese"
        ]
    ],
    "airports": [
        "germany": ["FRA", "MUC", "HAM", "TXL"]
    ]
]

// read value for a given key path
let isNil: Any = "nil"
print(dict[keyPath: "countries.japan.capital.name"] ?? isNil) // tokyo
print(dict[keyPath: "airports"] ?? isNil)                     // ["germany": ["FRA", "MUC", "HAM", "TXL"]]
print(dict[keyPath: "this.is.not.a.valid.key.path"] ?? isNil) // nil

// write value for a given key path
dict[keyPath: "countries.japan.language"] = "nihongo"
print(dict[keyPath: "countries.japan.language"] ?? isNil) // nihongo

dict[keyPath: "airports.germany"] = 
    (dict[keyPath: "airports.germany"] as? [Any] ?? []) + ["FOO"]
dict[keyPath: "this.is.not.a.valid.key.path"] = "notAdded"

print(dict)
/*  [
        "countries": [
            "japan": [
                "capital": [
                    "name": "tokyo", 
                    "lon": "139.6917",
                    "lat": "35.6895"
                    ], 
                "language": "nihongo"
            ]
        ], 
        "airports": [
            "germany": ["FRA", "MUC", "HAM", "TXL", "FOO"]
        ]
    ] */