code: def modify_member(row, key, value):
      ''' properly modifies a dict or class attribute '''
      (target, tkey, tvalue) = dict_crawl(row, key)
      if target:
          target[tkey] = value
      return rof modify_member(row, key, value):
      ''' properly modifies a dict or class attribute '''
      (target, tkey, tvalue) = dict_crawl(row, key)
      if target:
          target[tkey] = value
      return row
docs: properly modifies a dict or class attribute