Question 279882 in Json Question posted in
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Parse JSON in python problem with syntax with square brackets

I have a JSON received from an API where is A word definition from English Dictionary. I need to parse the data and separate meanings, definitions, and examples but I have some syntax problems with the JSON file.

Here is an example received JSON for the word Handsome:

[{"word":"handsome","phonetic":"/ˈhæn.səm/","phonetics":[{"text":"/ˈhæn.səm/","audio":"https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/handsome-uk.mp3","sourceUrl":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9021972","license":{"name":"BY 3.0 US","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us"}},{"text":"/ˈhæn.səm/","audio":"https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/handsome-us.mp3","sourceUrl":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1648256","license":{"name":"BY-SA 3.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0"}}],"meanings":[{"partOfSpeech":"verb","definitions":[{"definition":"To render handsome.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]}],"synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"partOfSpeech":"adjective","definitions":[{"definition":"(of people, things, etc) Having a good appearance; good-looking.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"a handsome garment, house, tree, or horse"},{"definition":"Good, appealing, appropriate.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"definition":"Generous or noble in character.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"Handsome is as handsome does."},{"definition":"Ample; moderately large.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"a handsome salary"},{"definition":"(said of things and people) Dexterous; skillful.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]}],"synonyms":["hefty","substantial","good-looking","pretty"],"antonyms":[]}],"license":{"name":"CC BY-SA 3.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0"},"sourceUrls":["https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/handsome"]}]

I wrote this code to load data and parse the data I want:

data = [{"word":"handsome","phonetic":"/ˈhæn.səm/","phonetics":[{"text":"/ˈhæn.səm/","audio":"https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/handsome-uk.mp3","sourceUrl":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9021972","license":{"name":"BY 3.0 US","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us"}},{"text":"/ˈhæn.səm/","audio":"https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/handsome-us.mp3","sourceUrl":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1648256","license":{"name":"BY-SA 3.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0"}}],"meanings":[{"partOfSpeech":"verb","definitions":[{"definition":"To render handsome.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]}],"synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"partOfSpeech":"adjective","definitions":[{"definition":"(of people, things, etc) Having a good appearance; good-looking.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"a handsome garment, house, tree, or horse"},{"definition":"Good, appealing, appropriate.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"definition":"Generous or noble in character.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"Handsome is as handsome does."},{"definition":"Ample; moderately large.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"a handsome salary"},{"definition":"(said of things and people) Dexterous; skillful.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]}],"synonyms":["hefty","substantial","good-looking","pretty"],"antonyms":[]}],"license":{"name":"CC BY-SA 3.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0"},"sourceUrls":["https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/handsome"]}]
json_load = (json.loads(json_data))
print(json_load['meanings'])

this error is shown: list indices must be integers or slices, not str
. If I add [0] to before [meanings] the problem is solved but I don’t know why should I do that: print(json_load[0]['meanings'])

Also, I have the same problem for the inner levels and I cannot parse the data. If I remove the square brackets from the beginning and end of the JSON string, there is no more need for [0] before [meanings].

What should I do? Do I need to add numbers before keys or do I have to remove square brackets for all levels?

Tags:

4

Answers


  1. 0

    Your API response is wrapped in a list, presumably because it could have returned multiple results.

    So yeah, you would "add numbers before keys" (i.e. access the zeroth member of the array); I’d just guard against unexpectedly getting multiple results, and then grab the zeroth one and work on that.

    parsed_data = json.loads(json_data)
if len(parsed_data) != 1:
    raise ValueError(f"Oops, got {len(parsed_data)} results!")
first_definition = parsed_data[0]

print(first_definition["word"], "(", first_definition["phonetic"], ")")

for meaning in first_definition["meanings"]:
    print("*", meaning["partOfSpeech"])
    for defn in meaning["definitions"]:
        print("  *", defn["definition"])
    # ... etc...
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  2. 0

    { and [ are separate brackets. The first means "here follows an ‘object’" whereas the second means "here follows a list". Therefore, if you paste the raw data that you got from the API

    [
  {
    "word":"handsome",
    "phonetic":"/ˈhæn.səm/",
    "phonetics": [
      {
        "text":"/ˈhæn.səm/",
      
  "audio":"https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/handsome-uk.mp3",
        "sourceUrl":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9021972","license":{"name":"BY 3.0 US",
...

    You have a list, containing an object (or potentially multiple). So the best thing to do is indeed use the numerical index 0 to get the first object in the list. Or even better, first check how many objects are in the list with len(json_load).

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  3. 0

    the error you get means that you are trying to access a list item using a string key (wich is impossible, you can access lists using int index only).

    • you need to access the list first then you can access the inner json key value pairs

    • same for any inner lists inside the json you need to specify the index first then you can access the data

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  4. 0

    If you’re getting those data from some API then it’s likely that you’re getting them as a string. So let’s make your data into a string like this:

    js = '''[{"word":"handsome","phonetic":"/ˈhæn.səm/","phonetics":[{"text":"/ˈhæn.səm/","audio":"https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/handsome-uk.mp3","sourceUrl":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9021972","license":{"name":"BY 3.0 US","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us"}},{"text":"/ˈhæn.səm/","audio":"https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/handsome-us.mp3","sourceUrl":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1648256","license":{"name":"BY-SA 3.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0"}}],"meanings":[{"partOfSpeech":"verb","definitions":[{"definition":"To render handsome.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]}],"synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"partOfSpeech":"adjective","definitions":[{"definition":"(of people, things, etc) Having a good appearance; good-looking.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"a handsome garment, house, tree, or horse"},{"definition":"Good, appealing, appropriate.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"definition":"Generous or noble in character.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"Handsome is as handsome does."},{"definition":"Ample; moderately large.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"a handsome salary"},{"definition":"(said of things and people) Dexterous; skillful.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]}],"synonyms":["hefty","substantial","good-looking","pretty"],"antonyms":[]}],"license":{"name":"CC BY-SA 3.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0"},"sourceUrls":["https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/handsome"]}]'''

    Now…

    import json

jlist = json.loads(js)

print(jlist[0]["meanings"])

    However, if you’ve already processed the API response and have the data as shown in the question then it’s just:

    js = [{"word":"handsome","phonetic":"/ˈhæn.səm/","phonetics":[{"text":"/ˈhæn.səm/","audio":"https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/handsome-uk.mp3","sourceUrl":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9021972","license":{"name":"BY 3.0 US","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us"}},{"text":"/ˈhæn.səm/","audio":"https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/handsome-us.mp3","sourceUrl":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1648256","license":{"name":"BY-SA 3.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0"}}],"meanings":[{"partOfSpeech":"verb","definitions":[{"definition":"To render handsome.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]}],"synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"partOfSpeech":"adjective","definitions":[{"definition":"(of people, things, etc) Having a good appearance; good-looking.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"a handsome garment, house, tree, or horse"},{"definition":"Good, appealing, appropriate.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]},{"definition":"Generous or noble in character.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"Handsome is as handsome does."},{"definition":"Ample; moderately large.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[],"example":"a handsome salary"},{"definition":"(said of things and people) Dexterous; skillful.","synonyms":[],"antonyms":[]}],"synonyms":["hefty","substantial","good-looking","pretty"],"antonyms":[]}],"license":{"name":"CC BY-SA 3.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0"},"sourceUrls":["https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/handsome"]}]

print(js[0]["meanings"])
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