How to convert a list within a list to string in Python

Question

I have a JSON output and I am appending each element into a python list using a for loop. I am using the append function to add element to my list. Once the loop is completed I want to convert each item in the list into a string. The problem is there each element in the list is another list. So there are for example 2 lists inside one main list. I have tried to exhaust possiblilities of converting the list into strings using the code below.

I have tried using :

print '\n'.join(map(str, folder_concat))
print '\n'.join(str(x) for x in folder_concat)

I also tried to convert the appended list before appending by using:

''.join(map(str, my_string.append(...elements to append...)

but, the output is always the same unicode format in the typical list style as follows:

(u'190430', u'TEST', u'Executing', False, False, u'20190430000522', u'20190430000522', u'20190506141820')
(u'190430', u'TEST1', u'Executing', False, False, u'20190430000522', u'20190430000522', u'20190506141820')

To add to the request some of the elements that are populated in the append are lists as well for example estimatedStartTime and this can be fetched with empty data so I cant iterate over it using (str(x) for x in folder_concat) as it will fail with the Iterable Error.

Here is the script I am using:

#!/usr/bin/python

import json
import sys

json_string = sys.stdin.read()
json_data = json.loads(json_string)

returned = json_data['returned']

if returned > 0:
    locations = json_data['statuses']
    sess_count = 0
    folder_count = 0
    folder_concat = []
    folder_str = []

    for i in locations:
        if i['type'] == 'Folder':
            folder_count += 1
            folder_concat.append((
                i.get('orderDate', ''),
                i.get('folderId', ''),
                i.get('status', ''),
                i.get('held', ''),
                i.get('deleted', ''),
                i.get('startTime', ''),
                (''.join(i.get('estimatedStartTime', ''
                 )[0]) if 'estimatedStartTime'
                 in i else ''.join(i.get('estimatedStartTime', ''))),
                (''.join(i.get('estimatedEndTime', ''
                 )[0]) if 'estimatedEndTime'
                 in i else ''.join(i.get('estimatedEndTime', ''))),
                ))
        else:
            pass
       print '\n'.join(str(x) for x in folder_concat)
elif odata['returned'] == 0:
    print 'No results fetched.'
else:
   pass

The input file is:

{
  "statuses" : [ {
    "orderDate" : "190430",
    "folderId" : "TEST",
    "status" : "Executing",
    "held" : false,
    "deleted" : false,
    "startTime" : "20190501000551",
    "estimatedStartTime" : [ "20190501000551" ],
    "estimatedEndTime" : [ "20190505043236" ],
  } ,{
    "orderDate" : "190430",
    "folderId" : "TEST1",
    "status" : "Executing",
    "held" : false,
    "deleted" : false,
    "startTime" : "20190501000551",
    "estimatedStartTime" : [ "20190501000551" ],
    "estimatedEndTime" : [ "20190505043236" ],
  }],
  "returned" : 2,
  "total" : 2
}

The results should look like:

190430, TEST, Executing, False, False, 20190430000522, 20190430000522, 20190506141820
190430, TEST1, Executing, False, False, 20190430000522, 20190430000522, 20190506141820

Jrmyy · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-07 17:06:42Z

1

First, when you do str on a tuple, it will print exactly the tuple, so with the parenthesis.

I would change the folder output by something like this:

for i in locations:
    folder_count += 1
    content = [
        i.get('orderDate', ''),
        i.get('folderId', ''),
        i.get('status', ''),
        i.get('held', ''),
        i.get('deleted', ''),
        i.get('startTime', ''),
        (''.join(i.get('estimatedStartTime', ''
         )[0]) if 'estimatedStartTime'
         in i else ''.join(i.get('estimatedStartTime', ''))),
        (''.join(i.get('estimatedEndTime', ''
         )[0]) if 'estimatedEndTime'
         in i else ''.join(i.get('estimatedEndTime', ''))),
    ]
    folder_concat.append(', '.join(str(item) for item in content))
    print '\n'.join(str(x) for x in folder_concat)

This way, you have a first step in order to transform your element as the wanted string, and then you keep the same flow. Let me know if you have any question.

answered May 7, 2019 at 17:06

Jrmyy

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2 Comments

Ali E Over a year ago

This worked thank you. However I initialised content as content = []. Please correct me if I didnt need to do this.

Jrmyy Over a year ago

You're welcome. You don't need it as it will always be init by the first folder you encounter

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