How to search for data in a JSON list within another JSON list? (Python)

Question

My assignment is requiring me to write code that can handle finding elements from one json list in another json list. Here is an example of the data:

data_to_find = {'location': {'state': 'WA'}, 'active': True}
data_to_look_in = {'id': 3, 'last': 'Black', 'first': 'Jim', 'location': {'city': 'Spokane', 'state': 'WA', 'postalCode': '99207'}, 'active': True}
print(data_to_find)
print(data_to_look_in)

output:

{'location': {'state': 'WA'}, 'active': True}

{'id': 3, 'last': 'Black', 'first': 'Jim', 'location': {'city': 'Spokane', 'state': 'WA', 'postalCode': '99207'}, 'active': True}

I have to find to find the data in data_to_find in data_to_look_in and I am having a lot of trouble doing this. Here is what I have tried and what it returns:

for line in data_to_find:
  tmp1 = data_to_find[line]
  tmp2 = data_to_look_in[line]
  print(tmp1)
  print(tmp2)
  if tmp1 in tmp2:
    print("found")

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-46-cf3b325f53e8> in <module>()
      4   print(tmp1)
      5   print(tmp2)
----> 6   if tmp1 in tmp2:
      7     print("found")

TypeError: unhashable type: 'dict'

I've tried other ways that seem to return the same error so I am looking for help on how to best approach and solve this issue. Any tips would be appreciated. Thank you. EDIT: I am trying to write this so it can be done generically not just for these specific data values.

Does this answer your question? [How can I access and process nested objects, arrays or JSON?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11922383/how-can-i-access-and-process-nested-objects-arrays-or-json) — Rafael Setton, Jun 03 '21 at 21:45
Not in particular because I am trying to write this in such a way that I can do it generically — Christian Cortez, Jun 03 '21 at 21:48
That answer *does* show you the basics of nested searching. Your particular problem is that you tried to find an *entire dict* `tmp1` as a key in `tmp2`. This is not how you access dict entries. Please see the available tutorials and examples, as well as the marked link, to learn how to do this. — Prune, Jun 03 '21 at 22:02
You need to search for a key, value pair: look up the key in `tmp2`, and then see whether the values match. — Prune, Jun 03 '21 at 22:03

Alex Reynolds · Answer 1 · 2021-06-03T23:20:19.690

Perhaps use Pandas:

import pandas as pd

data_to_find = {'location': {'state': 'WA'}, 'active': True}
data_to_look_in = {'id': 3, 'last': 'Black', 'first': 'Jim', 'location': {'city': 'Spokane', 'state': 'WA', 'postalCode': '99207'}, 'active': True}

df1 = pd.DataFrame.from_dict(data_to_find)
print(df1)
'''
      location  active
state       WA    True
'''

df2 = pd.DataFrame.from_dict(data_to_look_in)
print(df2)
'''
            id   last first location  active
city         3  Black   Jim  Spokane    True
postalCode   3  Black   Jim    99207    True
state        3  Black   Jim       WA    True
'''

search_results = pd.merge(df1, df2, how ='inner', on =['location', 'active'])
print(search_results)
'''
  location  active  id   last first
0       WA    True   3  Black   Jim
'''

If the length of search_results is greater than zero, you have one or more matches:

print(len(search_results))
'''
1
'''

This example merges on location and active columns. To solve this with a generic data_to_find object, where you don't know column names ahead of time, you might use on=data_to_find.keys(), using the top-level keys in that object. Those keys will need to be in the data_to_look_in object for the merge to work correctly.

This returns errors sayiong that DataFrame is called incorrectly — Christian Cortez, Jun 03 '21 at 22:35
Perhaps check that you are using current versions of Python (>=3.8) and Pandas (>=1.2) and update, if necessary. Otherwise, provide minimally-reproducible code for others to evaluate locally, if you can. This will help others help you. — Alex Reynolds, Jun 03 '21 at 23:18

How to search for data in a JSON list within another JSON list? (Python)

1 Answers1