Parse JSON Without Knowing The Key Value

I know how to parse a JSON knowing the key value, but now I'd like to get the key values from a JSON that it's not mine, so I can know the key names, for instance I have this JSON

Solution 1:

Here's a recursive generator that will scan through a nested list / dictionary structure, like you get from loading JSON into Python. It shows you the sequence of dictionary keys and list indices associated with every value.

I've modified your data slightly to illustrate how it handles lists nested inside dicts.

data = [
  {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Leanne Graham",
    "username": "Bret",
    "email": "Sincere@april.biz",
    "address": {
      "street": "Kulas Light",
      "suite": "Apt. 556",
      "city": "Gwenborough",
      "zipcode": "92998-3874",
      "geo": {
        "lat": "-37.3159",
        "lng": "81.1496"
      }
    },
    "phone": "1-770-736-8031 x56442",
    "website": "hildegard.org",
    "company": {
      "name": "Romaguera-Crona",
      "catchPhrase": "Multi-layered client-server neural-net",
      "bs": "harness real-time e-markets"
    },
    "other": ["This", "is", "a list"]
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "name": "Ervin Howell",
    "username": "Antonette",
    "email": "Shanna@melissa.tv",
    "address": {
      "street": "Victor Plains",
      "suite": "Suite 879",
      "city": "Wisokyburgh",
      "zipcode": "90566-7771",
      "geo": {
        "lat": "-43.9509",
        "lng": "-34.4618"
      }
    },
    "phone": "010-692-6593 x09125",
    "website": "anastasia.net",
    "company": {
      "name": "Deckow-Crist",
      "catchPhrase": "Proactive didactic contingency",
      "bs": "synergize scalable supply-chains"
    },
    "other": ["This", "is", "another list"]
  },
]    

def show_indices(obj, indices):
    for k, v in obj.items() if isinstance(obj, dict) else enumerate(obj):
        if isinstance(v, (dict, list)):
            yield from show_indices(v, indices + [k])
        else:
            yield indices + [k], v

for keys, v in show_indices(data, []):
    print(keys, v)

output

[0, 'id'] 1
[0, 'name'] Leanne Graham
[0, 'username'] Bret
[0, 'email'] Sincere@april.biz
[0, 'address', 'street'] Kulas Light
[0, 'address', 'suite'] Apt. 556
[0, 'address', 'city'] Gwenborough
[0, 'address', 'zipcode'] 92998-3874
[0, 'address', 'geo', 'lat'] -37.3159
[0, 'address', 'geo', 'lng'] 81.1496
[0, 'phone'] 1-770-736-8031 x56442
[0, 'website'] hildegard.org
[0, 'company', 'name'] Romaguera-Crona
[0, 'company', 'catchPhrase'] Multi-layered client-server neural-net
[0, 'company', 'bs'] harness real-time e-markets
[0, 'other', 0] This
[0, 'other', 1] is
[0, 'other', 2] a list
[1, 'id'] 2
[1, 'name'] Ervin Howell
[1, 'username'] Antonette
[1, 'email'] Shanna@melissa.tv
[1, 'address', 'street'] Victor Plains
[1, 'address', 'suite'] Suite 879
[1, 'address', 'city'] Wisokyburgh
[1, 'address', 'zipcode'] 90566-7771
[1, 'address', 'geo', 'lat'] -43.9509
[1, 'address', 'geo', 'lng'] -34.4618
[1, 'phone'] 010-692-6593 x09125
[1, 'website'] anastasia.net
[1, 'company', 'name'] Deckow-Crist
[1, 'company', 'catchPhrase'] Proactive didactic contingency
[1, 'company', 'bs'] synergize scalable supply-chains
[1, 'other', 0] This
[1, 'other', 1] is
[1, 'other', 2] another list

---

You can use these lists to access any item, eg

keys = [1, 'company', 'catchPhrase']
obj = data
for k in keys:
    obj = obj[k]
print(obj)

output

Proactive didactic contingency

Or if you want to modify an item:

keys = [1, 'company', 'catchPhrase']
obj = data
for k in keys[:-1]:
    obj = obj[k]
obj[keys[-1]] = "some new thing"
print(data[1]['company'])

output

{'name': 'Deckow-Crist', 'catchPhrase': 'some new thing', 'bs': 'synergize scalable supply-chains'}

Solution 2:

Try someting like this

for d in data:
    for key in d.keys():
        print(d[key])