Editing python dictionary keys in nested structures

Question

I have the following structure to edit, and I am not sure how to do it. E.g. I need to rename 'Email' into 'emails' and have only email address in the value.

{'input_text': 'some text',
 'lang': 'eng',
 'response': {'Certification': [{'CertificationName': 'some_name'}],
  'Email': [{'Address': 'someaddress@gmail.com', 'Label': 'personal'}],
  'ExecutiveSummary': ' text',
  'FamilyName': 'Smith',
  'FormattedName': 'John',
  'GivenName': 'John'}
}

This is what I would like

{'input_text': 'some text',
 'lang': 'eng',
 'response': {'Certification': [{'CertificationName': 'some_name'}],
  'emails': ['someaddress@gmail.com'],
  'ExecutiveSummary': ' text',
  'FamilyName': 'Smith',
  'FormattedName': 'John',
  'GivenName': 'John'}

I have had a look at similar questions and some documentation, but still can't figure it out.

Mehrdad Pedramfar · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-25T11:47:04.477

3

if d is your dict then Try this:

d['response']['emails'] = [i['Address'] for i in d['response']['Email']]
del d['response']['Email']

Or you can do it using pop in just one line:

d['response']['emails'] = [i['Address'] for i in d['response'].pop('Email')]

This will give you:

 {'input_text': 'some text',
 'lang': 'eng',
 'response': {'Certification': [{'CertificationName': 'some_name'}],
  'ExecutiveSummary': ' text',
  'FamilyName': 'Smith',
  'FormattedName': 'John',
  'GivenName': 'John',
  'emails': ['someaddress@gmail.com']}}

edited Feb 25 '20 at 11:47

answered Feb 25 '20 at 11:41

Mehrdad Pedramfar

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Thanks, works as intended! I didn't mention one more part in my question, so I will ask in the comments instead - how would you loop it through a big json file? this works for one element, but when I apply to the whole document, I get error 'list indices must be integers or slices, not str' – alinaz Feb 25 '20 at 11:49
@alinaz your welcome. you mean how you can load a big file in python script? – Mehrdad Pedramfar Feb 25 '20 at 11:51
@alinaz I found this useful link for you. see this you will find an answer. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10382253/reading-rather-large-json-files-in-python – Mehrdad Pedramfar Feb 25 '20 at 11:53
And this repo will help you out. https://github.com/henu/bigjson – Mehrdad Pedramfar Feb 25 '20 at 11:54

fixatd · Answer 2 · 2020-02-25T11:44:27.970

I wouldn't rename a key, but you could just create 'emails' and then populate it:

test_dict = {
    'input_text': 'some text',
    'lang': 'eng',
    'response': {
        'Certification': [{
            'CertificationName': 'some_name'
        }],
        'Email': [{
            'Address': 'someaddress@gmail.com',
            'Label': 'personal'
        }],
        'ExecutiveSummary': ' text',
        'FamilyName': 'Smith',
        'FormattedName': 'John',
        'GivenName': 'John'
    }
}
test_dict['response']['emails'] = [
    email['Address']
    for email in test_dict['response']['Email']
]

Edit: And as @h4z3 had mentioned, you can delete using del or if you need to get the value whilst deleting it pop

# Using del
del test_dict['response']['Email']

# Using pop
test_dict['response'].pop('Email')

And then just `del test_dict['response']['Email']` and the thing looks like OP wants. :) — h4z3, Feb 25 '20 at 11:41

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 25 '20 at 11:43

If you know that there will be only 'Email':

from ast import literal_eval

od = {'input_text': 'some text',
 'lang': 'eng',
 'response': {'Certification': [{'CertificationName': 'some_name'}],
  'Email': [{'Address': 'someaddress@gmail.com', 'Label': 'personal'}],
  'ExecutiveSummary': ' text',
  'FamilyName': 'Smith',
  'FormattedName': 'John',
  'GivenName': 'John'}}

od['response']['Email'] = [od['response']['Email'][0]['Address']]
print(literal_eval(str(od).replace('Email:', 'email:')))

{'input_text': 'some text',
 'lang': 'eng',
 'response': {'Certification': [{'CertificationName': 'some_name'}],
  'Email': ['someaddress@gmail.com'],
  'ExecutiveSummary': ' text',
  'FamilyName': 'Smith',
  'FormattedName': 'John',
  'GivenName': 'John'}}

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 25 '20 at 11:45

You can make new key emails and after that delete the old one:

>>> my_dict = {
...     'input_text': 'some text',
...     'lang': 'eng',
...     'response': {
...         'Certification': [
...             {
...                 'CertificationName': 'some_name'
...             }
...         ],
...         'Email': [
...             {
...                 'Address': 'someaddress@gmail.com', 
...                 'Label': 'personal'
...             }
...         ],
...         'ExecutiveSummary': ' text',
...         'FamilyName': 'Smith',
...         'FormattedName': 'John',
...         'GivenName': 'John'
...     }
... }
>>> my_dict['response']['emails'] = [d['Address'] for d in my_dict['response']['Email']]
>>> my_dict['response'].pop('Email', None)
>>> print(my_dict)
    {
...     'input_text': 'some text',
...     'lang': 'eng',
...     'response': {
...         'Certification': [
...             {
...                 'CertificationName': 'some_name'
...             }
...         ],
...         'ExecutiveSummary': ' text',
...         'FamilyName': 'Smith',
...         'FormattedName': 'John',
...         'GivenName': 'John',
...         'emails': ['someaddress@gmail.com']
...     }
... }

Editing python dictionary keys in nested structures

4 Answers4