la-deep-get

Function to get value from unknown structure


Keywords
function, get, structure, package, python
License
MIT
Install
pip install la-deep-get==0.0.6

Documentation

deep-get

Function to get value that is deep inside another structure.

install

pip install deep-get

syntax

dget(structure, *args, default=None)

structure - Structure to go through
*args - Each field to be passed as key
default - The value to return in case it fail to access any of the keys (default is None)

example

Let's say that you have dictionary with product information and you want all active big images.

product = {
    "name": "really cool product",
    "images": {
        "active: {
            "small": [
                "https://www.smallimage.com",
                "https://www.smallimage.com",
                "https://www.smallimage.com",
            ],
            "big": [
                "https://www.bigimage.com",
                "https://www.bigimage.com",
                "https://www.bigimage.com",
            ]
        },
        "disabled": {
            "small": [
                "https://www.notcool.com",
                "https://www.notcool.com",
                "https://www.notcool.com",
            ],
            "big": [
                "https://www.notcool.com",
                "https://www.notcool.com",
                "https://www.notcool.com",
            ]
        }
    }
}

The easiest way would be to use try except and set a default value in case of errors.

try:
    big_images = product["images"]["active"]["big"]
except:
    big_images = []

Or you could use multiple gets.

big_images = product.get("images", {}).get("active", {}).get("big", [])

Either way can be quite annoying to write and complicated. If the structure gets bigger and bigger (like a json from a complicated website), using dget may simplify this situation.

big_images = dget(product, "images", "active", "big", default=[])

usage

All that you need to know is that you will navigate like normally do with dictionaries or lists (using square brackets) but it will not raise exceptions if one field doesn't exist along the way.

list_ = [
    [1,2,3],
    [4,5,6],
    [7,8,9],
    [
        [10, 11, 12],
        [13, 14, 15],
        [16, 17, 18],
    ]
]

# Same as: list_[3][1][2]
value = dget(list_, 3, 1, 2)

print(value) # 15
list_ = {
    "hello": {
        "annoing": {
            "dictionary": "here"
        }
    }
}

# Same as: list_["hello"]["annoing"]["dictionary"]
value = dget(list_, "hello", "annoing", "dictionary")

print(value) # "here"

It really doesn't care what strcuture it is.

list_ = {
    "first": {
        5: [
            "nice"
        ]
    }
}

# Same as: list_["first"][5][0]
value = dget(list_, "first", 5, 0)

print(value) # "nice"