Python and JSON - TypeError list indices must be integers not str

Question

I am learning to use Python and APIs (specifically, this World Cup API, http://www.kimonolabs.com/worldcup/explorer)

The JSON data looks like this:

[         


        

Answer 1

First of all, you should be using json.loads, not json.dumps. loads converts JSON source text to a Python value, while dumps goes the other way.

After you fix that, based on the JSON snippet at the top of your question, readable_json will be a list, and so readable_json['firstName'] is meaningless. The correct way to get the 'firstName' field of every element of a list is to eliminate the playerstuff = readable_json['firstName'] line and change for i in playerstuff: to for i in readable_json:.

Answer 2

You can simplify your code down to

url = "http://worldcup.kimonolabs.com/api/players?apikey=xxx"
json_obj = urllib2.urlopen(url).read
player_json_list = json.loads(json_obj)
for player in readable_json_list:
    print player['firstName']

You were trying to access a list element using dictionary syntax. the equivalent of

foo = [1, 2, 3, 4]
foo["1"]

It can be confusing when you have lists of dictionaries and keeping the nesting in order.

Answer 3

I solved changing

readable_json['firstName']

by

readable_json[0]['firstName']