Parse JSON output from API file into CSV

Question

I am currently trying to convert a JSON output from an API request to a CSV format so i can store the results into our database. Here is my current code for reference:

import pyodbc
import csv
#import urllib2
import json
import collections
import requests
#import pprint
#import functools

print ("Connecting via ODBC")

conn = pyodbc.connect('DSN=DSN', autocommit=True)

print ("Connected!\n")

cur = conn.cursor() 

sql = """SELECT DATA"""

cur.execute(sql)

#df = pandas.read_sql_query(sql, conn)

#df.to_csv('TEST.csv')

#print('CSV sheet is ready to go!')

rows = cur.fetchall()

obs_list = []

for row in rows:

    d = collections.OrderedDict()
    d['addressee'] = row.NAME
    d['street'] = row.ADDRESS
    d['city'] = row.CITY
    d['state'] = row.STATE
    d['zipcode'] = row.ZIP
    obs_list.append(d)

obs_file = 'TEST.json'
with open(obs_file, 'w') as file:
    json.dump(obs_list, file)


print('Run through API')


url = 'https://api.smartystreets.com/street-address?'

headers = {'content-type': 'application/json'}

with open('test1.json', 'r') as run:

    dict_run = run.readlines()

    dict_ready = (''.join(dict_run))

r = requests.post(url , data=dict_ready, headers=headers)

ss_output = r.text

output = 'output.json'

with open(output,'w') as of:

    json.dump(ss_output, of)

print('I think it works')

f = open('output.json')

   data = json.load(f)

data_1 = data['analysis']

data_2 = data['metadata']

data_3 = data['components']

entity_data = open('TEST.csv','w')

csvwriter = csv.writer(entity_data)

count = 0

count2 = 0

count3 = 0

for ent in data_1:

    if count == 0:

        header = ent.keys()

        csvwriter.writerow(header)

        count += 1

    csvwriter.writerow(ent.values())

for ent_2 in data_2:

    if count2 == 0:

        header2 = ent_2.keys()

        csvwriter.writerow(header2)

        count2 += 1

    csvwriter.writerow(ent_2.values())

for ent_3 in data_3:

    if count3 == 0:

        header3 = ent_3.keys()

        csvwriter.writerow(header3)

        count3 += 1

    csvwriter.writerow(ent_3.values())

entity_data.close()

Sample output from API:

[
    {
        "input_index": 0,
        "candidate_index": 0,
        "delivery_line_1": "1 Santa Claus Ln",
        "last_line": "North Pole AK 99705-9901",
        "delivery_point_barcode": "997059901010",
        "components": {
            "primary_number": "1",
            "street_name": "Santa Claus",
            "street_suffix": "Ln",
            "city_name": "North Pole",
            "state_abbreviation": "AK",
            "zipcode": "99705",
            "plus4_code": "9901",
            "delivery_point": "01",
            "delivery_point_check_digit": "0"
        },
        "metadata": {
            "record_type": "S",
            "zip_type": "Standard",
            "county_fips": "02090",
            "county_name": "Fairbanks North Star",
            "carrier_route": "C004",
            "congressional_district": "AL",
            "rdi": "Commercial",
            "elot_sequence": "0001",
            "elot_sort": "A",
            "latitude": 64.75233,
            "longitude": -147.35297,
            "precision": "Zip8",
            "time_zone": "Alaska",
            "utc_offset": -9,
            "dst": true
        },
        "analysis": {
            "dpv_match_code": "Y",
            "dpv_footnotes": "AABB",
            "dpv_cmra": "N",
            "dpv_vacant": "N",
            "active": "Y",
            "footnotes": "L#"
        }
    },

    {
        "input_index": 1,
        "candidate_index": 0,
        "delivery_line_1": "Loop land 1",
        "last_line": "North Pole AK 99705-9901",
        "delivery_point_barcode": "997059901010",
        "components": {
            "primary_number": "1",
            "street_name": "Lala land",
            "street_suffix": "Ln",
            "city_name": "North Pole",
            "state_abbreviation": "AK",
            "zipcode": "99705",
            "plus4_code": "9901",
            "delivery_point": "01",
            "delivery_point_check_digit": "0"
        },
        "metadata": {
            "record_type": "S",
            "zip_type": "Standard",
            "county_fips": "02090",
            "county_name": "Fairbanks North Star",
            "carrier_route": "C004",
            "congressional_district": "AL",
            "rdi": "Commercial",
            "elot_sequence": "0001",
            "elot_sort": "A",
            "latitude": 64.75233,
            "longitude": -147.35297,
            "precision": "Zip8",
            "time_zone": "Alaska",
            "utc_offset": -9,
            "dst": true
        },
        "analysis": {
            "dpv_match_code": "Y",
            "dpv_footnotes": "AABB",
            "dpv_cmra": "N",
            "dpv_vacant": "N",
            "active": "Y",
            "footnotes": "L#"
        }
]

After storing the API output the trouble is trying to parse the returned output (Sample output) into a CSV format. The code im using to try to do this:

f = open('output.json')

data = json.load(f)

data_1 = data['analysis']

data_2 = data['metadata']

data_3 = data['components']

entity_data = open('TEST.csv','w')

csvwriter = csv.writer(entity_data)

count = 0

count2 = 0

count3 = 0

for ent in data_1:

    if count == 0:

        header = ent.keys()

        csvwriter.writerow(header)

        count += 1

    csvwriter.writerow(ent.values())

for ent_2 in data_2:

    if count2 == 0:

        header2 = ent_2.keys()

        csvwriter.writerow(header2)

        count2 += 1

    csvwriter.writerow(ent_2.values())

for ent_3 in data_3:

    if count3 == 0:

        header3 = ent_3.keys()

        csvwriter.writerow(header3)

        count3 += 1

    csvwriter.writerow(ent_3.values())

entity_data.close()

returns the following error: TypeError: string indices must be integers. And as someone kindly commented and pointed out it appears i am iterating over keys instead of the different dictionaries, and this is where I get stuck because im not sure what to do? From my understanding it looks like the JSON is split into 3 different arrays with JSON object for each, but that does not appear to be the case according to the structure? I apologize for the length of the code, but I want some resemblance of context to what i am trying to accomplish.

Answer 1

Consider pandas's json_normalize() method to flatten nested items into tabular df structure:

import pandas as pd
from pandas.io.json import json_normalize
import json

with open('Output.json') as f:
    data = json.load(f)

df = json_normalize(data)

df.to_csv('Output.csv')

Do note the components , metadata , and analysis become period-separated prefixes to corresponding values. If not needed, consider renaming columns.

Answer 2

You are saving request's result.text with json. result.text is a string so upon rereading it through json you get the same one long string instead of a list . Try to write result.text as is:

output = 'output.json'
with open(output,'w') as of:
    of.write(ss_output)

That's the cause of TypeError:string indices must be integers you mention. The rest of your code has multiple issues.

1. The data in json is a list of dicts so to get ,say , data_1 you need list comprehension like this: data_1 = [x['analysis'] for x in data]

2. You write three types of rows into the same csv file: components, metadata and analyzis. That's really odd.

Probably you have to rewrite the second half of the code: open three csv_writers one per data type, then iterate over data items and write their fields into corresponding csv_writer.