Python function return dictionary?

Question

I am a beginner Python user and I have come across an output to a function that I don't understand. I can't give all the code because some of it is IP at my company.

I am basically using a library written by one of our devs to pull a metric from out data warehouse. I want to then use this metric value in another application to when i get the value i will pass it to my own DB.

My issue is I dont understand the output of the function I am using to actually extrapolate the value I want.

If someone with more Python experience could tell me what the return of the function is doing as the best I can tell it is building a dict, but I don't fully understand how and where. I must add this is the function from inside the lib

def get(self, **kwargs):
    if 'SchemaName' not in kwargs:
        kwargs['SchemaName'] = self.find_schema_by_params(**kwargs)

    if 'Stat' in kwargs and kwargs['Stat'] not in MWS.VALID_Stat:
        raise MWSException("Incorrect Stat value: %s" % kwargs['Stat'])

    if 'Period' in kwargs and kwargs['Period'] not in MWS.VALID_Period:
        raise MWSException("Incorrect Period value: %s" % kwargs['Period'])

    self._validate_schema(kwargs, MWS.DEFAULT_GET_PARAMETERS)
    self._encode_start_time(kwargs)

    if 'EndTime' not in kwargs:
    if kwargs['StartTime'].startswith('-P'):
            kwargs['EndTime'] = '-P00D'
        else:
            kwargs['EndTime'] = datetime.datetime.utcnow().strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.000Z")

    return self._mws_action('GetMetricData', **kwargs)['StatisticSeries']

Not sure what you're asking. It's calling the _mw_action method, getting the 'StatisticSeries' value from the returned data, then returning that. — Daniel Roseman
– Daniel Roseman, Commented Dec 21, 2016 at 16:41
you can always elucidate the data type of the returned value by using type(my_object.my_method(arguments)) — juanpa.arrivillaga
– juanpa.arrivillaga, Commented Dec 21, 2016 at 16:49

Billal BEGUERADJ · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-24 16:28:45Z

1

Apparently, _mws_action() is a method that is passed a string, 'GetMetricData' and the same keyword arguments as your get method (with a few modifications). _mws_action() returns a dictionary, and you return the 'StatisticSeries' element of that dictionary.

**kwargs converts a dictionary to/from keyword arguments. So you can call get as

get(SchemaName='schema', Stat='somestat', EndTime="-P00D")

and kwargs will be:

{'SchemaName': 'schema', 'Stat':'somestat', 'EndTime':"-P00D"}

edited May 24, 2017 at 16:28

Billal BEGUERADJ

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answered Dec 21, 2016 at 16:47

mlv

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11 Comments

pyth0nBen Over a year ago

awesome thanks for the quick response, so if i use a loop to iterate kwargs i should be able to see the values?

mlv Over a year ago

Exactly. for k in kwargs: print k, kwargs[k]

pyth0nBen Over a year ago

so i can iterate the keys:values of the dictionary i input but how would I iterate the dictionary that comes back ?

pyth0nBen Over a year ago

def _mws_action(self, action, method='GET', **kwargs):         response_key = '%sResponse' % action         return self.api_call(method=method, Action=action, **kwargs)[response_key]

pyth0nBen Over a year ago

you've been a great help, happy holidays

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