[python] How to extract a single value from JSON response?

First off, I will freely concede to being little more than a clumsy liberal arts guy who is completely self taught in this scripting thing. That said, I am attempting to get values from a the USGS Water Data Service using the code below:

def main(gaugeId):

    # import modules
    import urllib2, json

    # create string
    url = "http://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/iv/?format=json&sites=" + gaugeId + "&parameterCd=00060,00065"

    # open connection to url
    urlFile = urllib2.urlopen(url)

    # load into local JSON list
    jsonList = json.load(urlFile)

    # extract and return
    # how to get cfs, ft, and zulu time?
    return [cfs, ft, time]

Although I have found some tutorials regarding how to extract the desired values from a JSON response, most are fairly simple. The difficulty I am having is extracting from what looks like a very complicated response this service is returning. Looking through the response, I can see what I want is the value from two different sections and a time value. Hence, I can look at the response and see what I need, I just cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to get these values extracted.

Extract single value from JSON response Python

Try this

import json
import sys

#load the data into an element
data={"test1" : "1", "test2" : "2", "test3" : "3"}

#dumps the json object into an element
json_str = json.dumps(data)

#load the json to a string
resp = json.loads(json_str)

#print the resp
print (resp)

#extract an element in the response
print (resp['test1'])

Only suggestion is to access your resp_dict via .get() for a more graceful approach that will degrade well if the data isn't as expected.

resp_dict = json.loads(resp_str)
resp_dict.get('name') # will return None if 'name' doesn't exist

You could also add some logic to test for the key if you want as well.

if 'name' in resp_dict:
    resp_dict['name']
else:
    # do something else here.