Convert a string into a nested dictionary in Python

Question

I'm using an API that returns a string formatted as a nested dictionary.

The problem is the structure of the string returns is very similar to a nested dictionary but it's not identically.

Below an example of what the API actually returns:

{
    "quote":{
        "symbol":"AMZN"
        "companyName":"Amazon.com Inc."
        "primaryExchange":"Nasdaq Global Select"
        "sector":"Consumer Cyclical"
        "calculationPrice":"close"
        "open":3157.75
        "openTime":1604064600266
        "close":1739.65
        "closeTime":1604088001623
        "high":3167.004
        "low":3019
        "latestPrice":1739.65
        "latestSource":"Close"
        "latestTime":"October 30, 2020"
        "latestUpdate":1604088001623
        "latestVolume":NULL
        "iexRealtimePrice":NULL
        "iexRealtimeSize":NULL
        "iexLastUpdated":NULL
        "delayedPrice":3036.15
        "delayedPriceTime":1604088001623
        "extendedPrice":3044.2
        "extendedChange":1304.55
        "extendedChangePercent":0.74989
        "extendedPriceTime":1604091597028
        "previousClose":1724.42
        "change":NULL
        "changePercent":NULL
        "iexMarketPercent":NULL
        "iexVolume":NULL
        "avgTotalVolume":3150697
        "iexBidPrice":NULL
        "iexBidSize":NULL
        "iexAskPrice":NULL
        "iexAskSize":NULL
        "marketCap":860528336495
        "peRatio":NULL
        "week52High":3167.004
        "week52Low":1307
        "ytdChange":0.13911139273485668
        }
    "bids":[
        ]
    "asks":[
        ]
    "systemEvent":{
        }
}

RAW text

{"quote":{"symbol":"AAPL","companyName":"Apple Inc.","primaryExchange":"Nasdaq Global Select","sector":"Technology","calculationPrice":"close","open":111,"openTime":1604064600921,"close":227.01,"closeTime":1604088000397,"high":111.99,"low":107.72,"latestPrice":227.01,"latestSource":"Close","latestTime":"October 30, 2020","latestUpdate":1604088000397,"latestVolume":null,"iexRealtimePrice":null,"iexRealtimeSize":null,"iexLastUpdated":null,"delayedPrice":108.86,"delayedPriceTime":1604088000397,"extendedPrice":109.05,"extendedChange":-117.96,"extendedChangePercent":-0.51962,"extendedPriceTime":1604091597895,"previousClose":220.82,"change":null,"changePercent":null,"iexMarketPercent":null,"iexVolume":null,"avgTotalVolume":28048177,"iexBidPrice":null,"iexBidSize":null,"iexAskPrice":null,"iexAskSize":null,"marketCap":1025899051800,"peRatio":null,"week52High":228.22,"week52Low":107.72,"ytdChange":0.48276164267212823},"bids":[],"asks":[],"systemEvent":{}}

As you can see, the quote dictionary is formatted as a normal dictionary, the problem is that the dictionaries bids and asks are empty and have square brackets.

I've tried this method Converting a string to a nested dictionary but it clearly doesn't work as my nested dictionary is not in a standard form

The final goal would be to extract the values from the dictionary as it's impossible at the moment with only a string.

There could be a reason that the API returns lists instead of dicts. Why do you need to convert them? — Felix, Nov 02 '20 at 10:34
The string is returning JSON, can you use `import json; json.loads`? — cs95, Nov 02 '20 at 10:35
I don't think the square brackets are your problem. Can you show us the errors you get when attempting to deserialize it? — Ali Tou, Nov 02 '20 at 10:36
The Python json module doesn't like the uppercase NULL. Converting to lowercase works, but doing a simple string replace might affect other data. Hmm... — Jack Taylor, Nov 02 '20 at 10:39
Oh, and there are no commas, which are also required in JSON. Looks like this might require a new parser. — Jack Taylor, Nov 02 '20 at 10:41
Maybe this is something to do with how the OP is getting the data from the API? Seeing a sample raw text response would help, but I can only find a formatted one. — Jack Taylor, Nov 02 '20 at 10:48
@NicoCaldo The raw data is valid JSON. You can convert this to a Python dictionary using [json.loads](https://docs.python.org/3/library/json.html#json.loads). — Jack Taylor, Nov 02 '20 at 11:21

Convert a string into a nested dictionary in Python

0 Answers0