API Help

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Jun 15, 2017 at 6:47 AM, Erik <python at lucidity.plus.com> wrote:
> On 14/06/17 21:38, Chris Angelico wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 15, 2017 at 6:33 AM, Bradley Cooper
>> <brad at midwestaftermarket.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I am working with an API and I get a return response in this format.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> [{"itemNumber":"75-5044","inventory":[{"warehouseCode":"UT-1-US","quantityAvailable":0.0000000000000},{"warehouseCode":"KY-1-US","quantityAvailable":0.0000000000000},{"warehouseCode":"TX-1-US","quantityAvailable":14.0000000000000},{"warehouseCode":"CA-1-US","quantityAvailable":4.0000000000000},{"warehouseCode":"AB-1-CA","quantityAvailable":1.0000000000000},{"warehouseCode":"WA-1-US","quantityAvailable":0.0000000000000},{"warehouseCode":"PO-1-CA","quantityAvailable":0.0000000000000}]}]
>>>
>>> What is the best way to read through the data?
>>
>>
>> That looks like JSON.
>
>
> If the keys weren't quoted, I'd agree with you.
>
> It looks like a REPL representation of a Python structure to me (list of
> dicts where the values could also be lists of dicts ...
>
> What makes it look like JSON to you? (I'm not arguing, I'm asking what I've
> missed).

JSON, unlike JavaScript/ECMAScript itself, requires the keys to be
quoted. (It's legal to quote them in JS, but conventionally, people
omit the quotes where possible.)

It wouldn't be the repr() of a Python structure, as that wouldn't have
all those trailing zeroes. But you probably could parse it with
literal_eval all the same. Still, I'd go with JSON if at all possible.

ChrisA