JSON print nested list from API request

Question

I'm querying an API that interfaces to MariaDB and this is how I get the data back.

{'TestTable': {'columns': ['Name', 'Id'], 'records': [['Jack', 1], ['Jill', 2]]}}

What I'm trying to achieve is to print the columns before the records like so:

Name: Jack
Id: 1
Name: Jill
Id: 2

I tried to take the data and put the columns and records into different lists and then my idea was to use an if to match the indexes and if match to print the to the format above, but it was the wrong index. Unfortuantely after trying to get it to work after about 5 different ways and 3 hours, I realized I had absolutely no idea what I was doing:

jsonData = json.loads(reqGet.text)
columns = jsonData['TestTable']['columns']
records = jsonData['TestTable']['records']

for idx, val in enumerate(records):
    print(idx, val)

Output:

0 ['Jack', 1]
1 ['Jill', 2]

Any thoughts besides "Have you considered digging ditches?", would be great.

Patrick Haugh · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-16 19:33:50Z

1

d={'TestTable': {'columns': ['Name', 'Id'], 'records': [['Jack', 1], ['Jill', 2]]}}

for record in d['TestTable']['records']:
    for col_name, value in zip(d['TestTable']['columns'], record):
        print('{}: {}'.format(col_name, value))

will print out

Name: Jack
Id: 1
Name: Jill
Id: 2

answered Nov 16, 2017 at 19:33

Patrick Haugh

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3 Comments

sloppytypist Over a year ago

Can you explain that or point me to docs? I believe it, but I dont get it.

Patrick Haugh Over a year ago

Sure, which bit is confusing? zip is a built in function that "pairs up" elements from multiple lists by index. str.format has kind of confusing docs, but this site has some good examples.

sloppytypist Over a year ago

I just read the zip() function doc and it's getting clearer, but yeah, it's still fuzzy. I think I just need to play with it until it makes sense. Just a stretch for a noob, that's all. Thanks a bunch! Really appreciated.

rafaelc · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-16 19:37:29Z

1

Using your own code:

jsonData = json.loads(reqGet.text)
columns = jsonData['TestTable']['columns']
records = jsonData['TestTable']['records']

And just changing a little bit your for loop to iterate through then using the same indexes:

for i in range(len(records)):
    data = records[i] # e.g. when i=0, data = ["Jack", 1] 
    for j in range(len(columns)):
        print(col[j], data[j])

edited Nov 16, 2017 at 19:37

answered Nov 16, 2017 at 19:31

rafaelc

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3 Comments

sloppytypist Over a year ago

So you are using len to match indexes?

rafaelc Over a year ago

I assumed both columns and records[j] have the same length. E.g. I assumed it is impossible for columns to be ["Name", "Id"] and records to be ["John", 1, "some third value"]

sloppytypist Over a year ago

Thanks you for the clarification.

Anton vBR · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-16 19:43:48Z

0

You could read it to a pandas dataframe:

import pandas as pd

d = {'TestTable': {'columns': ['Name', 'Id'], 'records': [['Jack', 1], ['Jill', 2]]}}

df = pd.DataFrame(data=d['TestTable']['records'],columns=d['TestTable']['columns'])

df looks like this:

  Name  Id
0  Jack   1
1  Jill   2

Print it looping through the rows and joining index with value:

for idx,row in df.iterrows():
    for item in zip(row.index,row.values):
        print(': '.join([str(i) for i in item]))

Result:

Name: Jack
Id: 1
Name: Jill
Id: 2

answered Nov 16, 2017 at 19:43

Anton vBR

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2 Comments

sloppytypist Over a year ago

Anton, what the advantage of this? Or is it just a different approach?

Anton vBR Over a year ago

@sloppytypist different approach. Pandas is the go to library in Python when dealing with tables.

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