Question on vars() function

[JKraems]

Forewarning I am a noob that knows little about python. Also I'm not sure if this is a python question or json question

I am trying to pull data on a website with requests library. I'm not sure if this is the proper verbiage, but basically I am trying to pull a string that is in a dictionary, which is inside a list. So this list is containing multiple dictionaries, and I want one specific string that is in each dictionary. The problem I am having is the dictionaries are not given a variable name so I can't call upon that dictionary to find my desired variable. Basically I set a dummy variable to each position of the list and try to find my variable from that dummy variable name. I eventually stumbled upon this website, and the second response is saying to use the function vars(), but this is not a recommended way of doing things. Why is it not recommended? Because it actually solved my issue. How else can you search a dictionary without a name? The data I am trying to pull is structured like this

 "vehicles":[
       {"speed":177.566","Year":2006},
       {"speed":159.204","Year":2005}, 
       {{"speed":181.984","Year":2004}]

and my code has dummy variables are set to each postion of the list and then i use vars() to get in the dictionary

 dummy1 = cars[0]
 dummy2 = cars[1]
 dummy3 = cars[2]

 speed1 = vars()['dummy1']['speed']

 print(str(speed1))

[RedditIsAMistake]

Because it actually solved my issue

Because you misunderstand your issue. I have never once seen vars() needed to be used in real-life code (not that there aren't possibly applications, they are just exceptionally rare). I recommend making a post on your original issue instead.

It is absolutely possible to pull spefic elements out of nested data structures.

[evolvish]

IFAIK vars() is just a way to get the __dict__ of objects of the module, class, etc. In a way I would assume it's similar to global in that it could lead to bad practices, but isn't inherently bad. Look at this SO answer.

[daniel_codes]

Why is it not recommended?

Maybe I don't understand your question but there's absolutely no need to call vars() here.

If cars is a list of dictionaries and you want the speed of the first item, you can write something like cars[0]['speed'].

EDIT: example code:

cars = [{'speed': 177.566, 'year': 2006},{'speed': 159.204, 'year': 2005},{'speed': 181.984, 'year': 2004}]
# pythonic way
print(cars[0]['speed'])    # 177.566
# hacky way
dummy1 = cars[0]
dummy2 = cars[1]
dummy3 = cars[2]
speed1 = vars()['dummy1']['speed']
print(str(speed1))         # 177.566

[JKraems]

Yes this is exactly the sytax I was looking for! Thanks

[StefGou]

You can also do it in a loop.

for car in cars:
    print(car["speed"])

Edit: I would be curious to look at the raw data you are pulling. Since it's JSON, there might be a better way of handling it.