How to access nested field in JSON with address given in Python

Question

What is the simplest way to access a field in json data if entire key-address is given in a list.

E.g., Given "data" a json object and ["context", "body", "gk"] as the list of keys, i.e.

resultant value = data["context"]["body"]["gk"]

In this, list of keys can be of any length.

Is there any simpler approach to this?

target = json.loads(data)
for elem in key_list:
    target = target[elem]
print target

I'm pretty sure this code does **not** do what you think it does, so you are looking for a working way, not a "simpler" way. Also, please see [ask] and provide reproducible examples. — DeepSpace, Nov 06 '19 at 11:27
Please do add some data sample which we can try out and check — nitin3685, Nov 06 '19 at 11:32
Edited, not it's working. sample: "{'meta': {u'central': {u'request_id': u'612988c6-2dc2hgke', u'collected_at': 1570273182061}}}" — padmanabh pande, Nov 06 '19 at 11:35
Possible duplicate of [Access nested dictionary items via a list of keys?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14692690/access-nested-dictionary-items-via-a-list-of-keys) — moooeeeep, Nov 06 '19 at 11:36

alexis · Answer 1 · 2019-11-06T12:13:32.027

Hah, good question! You need to repeatedly apply a function (dict.get), and the tool for this is reduce. Like this:

path = ["context", "body", "gk"]
data = {"context": { "body": {"gk": 42 }}}

from functools import reduce
print(reduce(dict.get, path, data))
# output: 42

If you have a dict-like object that might or might not have overridden the get method, you can use its get method instead of dict.get, like this:

reduce(type(data).get, path, data)

How to access nested field in JSON with address given in Python

1 Answers1