parsing array requests in Python

Question

Is there a common way to parse arrays sent in this notation?

>>> import urlparse
>>> urlparse.parse_qs('a=1&a=2')['a']
['1', '2']

I'd expect the output of the following to be the same:

>>> urlparse.parse_qs('a[0]=1&a[1]=2')['a']
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
KeyError: 'a'

Is there a reason why it isn't so?

Probably because that's a very unusual way of constructing a query string. Where is it coming from? — Daniel Roseman
– Daniel Roseman, Commented Sep 14, 2013 at 14:41
@DanielRoseman I'm seeing it while using mootools: var arr=[1,2]; new Request({url:'...'}).post({a: arr}); — Sergey
– Sergey, Commented Sep 14, 2013 at 15:48

kindall · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-14 14:43:20Z

3

Why would you expect the results from two entirely different query strings to be the same? You have two distinct keys in the your second query string: a[0] and a[1]. They are strings and urlparse does not further parse them. You will find them in the resulting dictionary under the names by which they appear in the query string.

If urlparse behaved as you seem to want it to, how would this be parsed?

a=1&a=2&a[0]=3&a[1]=4

answered Sep 14, 2013 at 14:43

kindall

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1 Comment

Sergey Over a year ago

Semantically they are both array notations seen on the web. Your example I'd expect to be parsed as ['3', '4', '1', '2'].

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