Python recursion to sort list of tuples into tree structure

I'm new to coding and got myself stuck trying to recursively sort a list of tuples. Here is my code:

# table consists on [(code, parent), (code, parent), ...]
table = [('1', ''),
      ('1.1', '1'),
      ('2', ''),
      ('2.1','2'),
      ('2.1.1','2.1'),
      ('3',''),
      ('3.1','3'),
      ('4',''),
      ('4.1','4'),
      ('4.1.1','4.1'),
      ('4.1.2','4.1')]
content = {}
def rec(table, parent=None):
    while True:
        try:
            _code = table[0][0]
            _parent = table [0][1]
            if _parent == '':
                content[_code] = _parent
                return rec(table[1:])
            else:
                if _parent in content:
                    if content[_parent] == '':
                        content[_parent] = table[0]
                    else:
                        content[_parent] = content[_parent], table[0]
                    return rec(table[1:], parent=_parent)
                else:
                    content[_parent] = table[0]
                    return rec(table[1:], parent=_parent)           
        except IndexError:
            break
    return content

print(rec(table))

The output I'm getting:

{'1': ('1.1', '1'), '2': ('2.1', '2'), '2.1': ('2.1.1', '2.1'), '3':('3.1', '3'), '4': ('4.1', '4'), '4.1': (('4.1.1', '4.1'), ('4.1.2','4.1'))}

But the desired output would be:

{'1': ('1.1', '1'), '2': ('2.1', '2'), {'2.1': ('2.1.1', '2.1')}, '3': ('3.1','3'), '4': ('4.1', '4'), {'4.1': ('4.1.1', '4.1'), ('4.1.2', '4.1')}

I need something like:

{'node_id': '1', 'name':'somename', 'children': [{'node_id': '1.1' ,'name':'somename', 'children': [{'node_id': '1.1.1', 'name':'somename', 'children': [{'node_id': '1.1.1.1', 'name':'somename', 'children': []}]}, {'node_id': '1.1.2', 'name':'somename', 'children': []}, {'node_id': '1.1.3', 'name':'somename', 'children': []}]}, {'node_id': '1.2', 'name':'somename', 'children': []}]}

Any thoughts on how to achieve what I'm aiming for?

You can use recursion:

table = [('1', ''), ('1.1', '1'), ('2', ''), ('2.1', '2'), ('2.1.1', '2.1'), ('3', ''), ('3.1', '3'), ('4', ''), ('4.1', '4'), ('4.1.1', '4.1'), ('4.1.2', '4.1')]
def to_dict(d):
  return {'node_id':d, 'children':[*map(to_dict, [a for a, b in table if b == d])]}

result = [to_dict(a) for a, b in table if not b]

Output:

[{'node_id': '1', 'children': [{'node_id': '1.1', 'children': []}]}, {'node_id': '2', 'children': [{'node_id': '2.1', 'children': [{'node_id': '2.1.1', 'children': []}]}]}, {'node_id': '3', 'children': [{'node_id': '3.1', 'children': []}]}, {'node_id': '4', 'children': [{'node_id': '4.1', 'children': [{'node_id': '4.1.1', 'children': []}, {'node_id': '4.1.2', 'children': []}]}]}]

Edit: supposing your tuples in table have additional information:

table = [('1', '', 'someval0'), ('1.1', '1', 'someval1'), ('2', '', 'someval2'), ('2.1', '2', 'someval3'), ('2.1.1', '2.1', 'someval4'), ('3', '', 'someval5'), ('3.1', '3', 'someval6'), ('4', '', 'someval7'), ('4.1', '4', 'someval8'), ('4.1.1', '4.1', 'someval9'), ('4.1.2', '4.1', 'someval10')]
def to_dict(d):
  return {**(dict(zip(['node_id', 'name'], d))), 'children':[*map(to_dict, [(a, *c) for a, b, *c in table if b == d[0]])]}

result = [to_dict((a, *c)) for a, b, *c in table if not b]

Output:

[{'node_id': '1', 'name': 'someval0', 'children': [{'node_id': '1.1', 'name': 'someval1', 'children': []}]}, {'node_id': '2', 'name': 'someval2', 'children': [{'node_id': '2.1', 'name': 'someval3', 'children': [{'node_id': '2.1.1', 'name': 'someval4', 'children': []}]}]}, {'node_id': '3', 'name': 'someval5', 'children': [{'node_id': '3.1', 'name': 'someval6', 'children': []}]}, {'node_id': '4', 'name': 'someval7', 'children': [{'node_id': '4.1', 'name': 'someval8', 'children': [{'node_id': '4.1.1', 'name': 'someval9', 'children': []}, {'node_id': '4.1.2', 'name': 'someval10', 'children': []}]}]}]