How to remove the first and last portion of a string in Python?

Question

How can i cut from such a string (json) everything before and including the first [ and everything behind and including the last ] with Python?

{
    "Customers": [
        {
           "cID": "w2-502952",
           "soldToId": "34124"
        },
        ...
        ...
    ],
        "status": {
        "success": true,
        "message": "Customers: 560",
        "ErrorCode": ""
    }
}

I want to have at least only

{
"cID" : "w2-502952",
"soldToId" : "34124",
}
...
...

why are you treating it like a string? Just access that element when you need it — SuperStew
– SuperStew, Commented Sep 24, 2018 at 14:26
You have to parse the JSON to do it safely, so you may as well use json.loads to get an object, extract the desired value, then re-encode it. — chepner
– chepner, Commented Sep 24, 2018 at 14:27

Daniel Roseman · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-24 14:27:31Z

4

String manipulation is not the way to do this. You should parse your JSON into Python and extract the relevant data using normal data structure access.

obj = json.loads(data)
relevant_data = obj["Customers"]

answered Sep 24, 2018 at 14:27

Daniel Roseman

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1 Comment

STORM Over a year ago

Thanks, but how do to it otherwise?

Dhirendra · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-24 14:37:30Z

1

Addition to @Daniel Rosman answer, if you want all the list from JSON.

result = []
obj = json.loads(data)

for value in obj.values():
    if isinstance(value, list):
        result.append(*value)

answered Sep 24, 2018 at 14:37

Dhirendra

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1 Comment

STORM Over a year ago

This is also correct, but due to the question the answer which best fits is Daniels answer.

J0hn · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-24 14:33:50Z

0

While I agree that Daniel's answer is the absolute best way to go, if you must use string splitting, you can try .find()

string = #however you are loading this json text into a string

start = string.find('[')
end = string.find(']')
customers = string[start:end]
print(customers)

output will be everything between the [ and ] braces.

answered Sep 24, 2018 at 14:33

J0hn

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Comments

Woody1193 · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-24 14:34:44Z

0

If you really want to do this via string manipulation (which I don't recommend), you can do it this way:

start = s.find('[') + 1
finish = s.find(']')
inner = s[start : finish]

edited Sep 24, 2018 at 14:34

answered Sep 24, 2018 at 14:33

Woody1193

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