python - Creating Shapely MultiPolygons from shapefile MultiPolygons

I'm reading a shapefile using Fiona:

with fiona.open('data/boroughs/boroughs_n.shp') as source:
   mpolys = [p for p in source]
candidate = polys[0]['geometry']

this gives me a dict containing a list of lists of coordinates, and type 'MultiPolygon' However, I'm not sure how to use the coordinates data to create a Shapely MultiPolygon, since it requires a sequence of exterior ring and hole list tuples: [((a1, ..., aM), [(b1, ..., bN), ...]), ...].

Is there a 'correct' way of doing this, using Fiona and Shapely?

Answer

You can use the shape function of Shapely:

from shapely.geometry import shape
c = fiona.open('data/boroughs/boroughs_n.shp')
pol = c.next()
geom = shape(pol['geometry'])

and a MultiPolygon is a list of Polygons,so

Multi = MultiPolygon([shape(pol['geometry']) for pol in fiona.open('data/boroughs/boroughs_n.shp')]) 

Example with one of my data:

# the dictionaries
for pol in fiona.open('poly.shp'):
print pol['geometry']

{'type': 'Polygon', 'coordinates': [[(249744.23153029341, 142798.16434689672),   (250113.79108725351, 142132.95714436853), (250062.62130244367, 141973.76225829343), (249607.77877080048, 141757.71205576291), (249367.77424759799, 142304.68402918623), (249367.77424759799, 142304.68402918623), (249744.23153029341, 142798.16434689672)]]}
{'type': 'Polygon', 'coordinates': [[(249175.78991730965, 142292.53526406409), (249367.77424759799, 142304.68402918623), (249607.77877080048, 141757.71205576291), (249014.45396077307, 141876.13484290778), (249175.78991730965, 142292.53526406409)]]}

{'type': 'Polygon', 'coordinates': [[(249026.74622412826, 142549.13626160321), (249223.42243781092, 142496.89414234375), (249175.78991730965, 142292.53526406409), (249026.74622412826, 142549.13626160321)]]}
...

and

 # MultiPolygon from the list of Polygons
 Multi = MultiPolygon([shape(pol['geometry']) for pol in fiona.open('poly.shp')])
 Multi.wkt
'MULTIPOLYGON (((249744.2315302934148349 142798.1643468967231456, 250113.7910872535139788 142132.9571443685272243, 250062.6213024436729029 141973.7622582934272941, 249607.7787708004761953 141757.7120557629095856, 249367.7742475979903247 142304.6840291862317827, 249367.7742475979903247 142304.6840291862317827, 249744.2315302934148349 142798.1643468967231456)), ((249175.7899173096520826 142292.5352640640921891, 249367.7742475979903247 142304.6840291862317827, 249607.7787708004761953 141757.7120557629095856, 249014.4539607730694115 141876.1348429077770561, 249175.7899173096520826 142292.5352640640921891)), ((249026.7462241282628383 142549.1362616032129154, 249223.4224378109211102 142496.8941423437499907, 249175.7899173096520826 142292.5352640640921891, 249026.7462241282628383 142549.1362616032129154)), ((249244.9338986824732274 142733.5202119307068642, 249744.2315302934148349 142798.1643468967231456, 249367.7742475979903247 142304.6840291862317827, 249367.7742475979903247 142304.6840291862317827, 249367.7742475979903247 142304.6840291862317827, 249175.7899173096520826 142292.5352640640921891, 249223.4224378109211102 142496.8941423437499907, 249244.9338986824732274 142733.5202119307068642)), ((249870.8182051893090829 142570.3083320840960369, 250034.3015973484434653 142613.6706442178401630, 250152.6146321419219021 142438.5058914067049045, 250015.3392731740023009 142310.1704097116598859, 249870.8182051893090829 142570.3083320840960369)))'

see also Append support for MultiPolygons in shapefiles