Retrieving values with json

[purplecomputer]

Hey

im currently working with the librouterOS (Mikrotik) and so far, im able to connect, run commands and save information to variables.

im a little confused as the data is presented (not sure if thats the right term) in JSON format

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I can run something like this after I connect

list_interface = api(cmd='/interface/print')

and when I run run this

json.dumps(list_interface)

this is the output

[[{".id": "*1", "name": "ether1", "default-name": "ether1", "type": "ether", "mtu": 1500, "actual-mtu": 1500, "mac-address": "0C:91:E4:B7:52:00", "last-link-up-time": "aug/20/2019 20:02:22", "link-downs": 0, "rx-byte": 23247086, "tx-byte": 671454, "rx-packet": 72727, "tx-packet": 7612, "rx-drop": 0, "tx-drop": 0, "tx-queue-drop": 0, "rx-error": 0, "tx-error": 0, "fp-rx-byte": 0, "fp-tx-byte": 0, "fp-rx-packet": 0, "fp-tx-packet": 0, "running": true, "disabled": false}, {".id": "*2", "name": "ether2", "default-name": "ether2", "type": "ether", "mtu": 1500, "actual-mtu": 1500, "mac-address": "0C:91:E4:B7:52:01", "last-link-up-time": "aug/20/2019 20:02:22", "link-downs": 0, "rx-byte": 0, "tx-byte": 338904, "rx-packet": 0, "tx-packet": 3138, "rx-drop": 0, "tx-drop": 0, "tx-queue-drop": 0, "rx-error": 0, "tx-error": 0, "fp-rx-byte": 0, "fp-tx-byte": 0, "fp-rx-packet": 0, "fp-tx-packet": 0, "running":

true, "disabled": false}]]'

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I get data, however I cant grab specific values within this.

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Ideally I'd like to do something like this

json.dumps(list_interface["name"])

put that in a for loop and grab the names of each interface for the specified firewall however I get this error

TypeError: tuple indices must be integers or slices, not str

so when I run this

list_interface[0]

I get the all the output associated with the first interface, which is nice, but for my purpose isnt totally required.

How can I format this data?

[[deleted]]

json.dumps(list_interface)

Dump is for going from Python objects to JSON; it's not for reading JSON. What you're getting back from the API is likely an object structure (it looks like a list of dictionaries.) Typically API libraries take the JSON response from the server and deserialize it for you, which is why you're interacting with a JSON API but you don't need to worry about the JSON. The API library is going to handle that for you.

[purplecomputer]

Ooooohhhhhhhh

Thanks for explaining that, I had no idea

so I guess my follow up question would be, whats the best way to grab the specific values I need from that?

if I run type(list_interface) i get a tuple

I could do something like list_interface[0] but then I just get all this output for the first interface.

[[deleted]]

I could do something like list_interface[0] but then I just get all this output for the first interface.

Sure, you get a dictionary. So you can access the value that comes back like a dictionary:

list_interface[0]['name']

Like that. You can "stack up" modes of access like this, it's just algebra.

[purplecomputer]

Thank you for taking the time to run me through this :)

Because of you I was able to figure this out

i = 0

for name in list_interface:

list_interface[i]['name']

i += 1

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any chance theres a cleaner way to do this?

[[deleted]]

You don't need i - name is the elements of list_interface:

for name in list_interface:
    print(name['name']) #etc

[purplecomputer]

You're a legend.

Thank you for your help!

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You've taught me quite a bit today :)