Pass dictionary keys into function

January 4, 2022

I want to write a function that accesses a dictionary key and renames it if the key exists. For example:

def json_rename(json_input, json_output, to_replace):
    json_output = []
    
    for j in json_input:
        try:
            j["key1"][0]["key_2"] = j["key1"][0].pop(to_replace)
            json.output.append(j)
        except:
            json.output.append(j)
   
    return json_output

j["key1"][0]["key_2"] could be any combination of keys, but how do I pass those as arguments?

>Solution :

I would pass in a list that represents the "path" of your target key. For example:

import contextlib

def rename_key(json_input, path, new_key):
    for j in json_input:
        with contextlib.suppress(KeyError):
            for p in path[:-1]:
                j = j[p]
            j[new_key] = j[path[-1]]
            del j[path[-1]]

rename_key(json_input, ['key1', 0, 'key2'], 'New Key 2')
rename_key(json_input, ['key3', 'key4', 1, 'key5'], 'New Key 5')