Post ASOKmthk2osi8d4kfA by danmayer@ruby.social
(DIR) More posts by danmayer@ruby.social
(DIR) Post #ASOG2WquHCmu7rzrZg by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-02-06T03:32:33Z
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Beginning to notice that almost every time I design a JSON format that includes a {"key1": {"...": "..."}, "key2": {"...": "..."}} structure I eventually realize it would have worked better as [{"id": "key1", "..."}, {"id": "key2", "..."}]
(DIR) Post #ASOGDmn9M2WQkLbicq by stefan@gardenstate.social
2023-02-06T03:33:20Z
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@simon arrays are magic.
(DIR) Post #ASOGevrbjX64hXdXjU by MrCheeze@wetdry.world
2023-02-06T03:35:44Z
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@simon {"key1": {"id": "key1", ...}} might feel wrong but is nice to use in practice.
(DIR) Post #ASOGpzjrfMVpuBI2u8 by mjgardner@social.sdf.org
2023-02-06T03:36:25Z
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@simon You’re rediscovering the natural keys vs. surrogate keys database debate
(DIR) Post #ASOH48adYREHPWiYmO by kellogh@hachyderm.io
2023-02-06T03:39:06Z
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@simon what tools are you using that the array works better?
(DIR) Post #ASOHHf0UL9phiNG2Pw by ernesto@async.social
2023-02-06T03:42:48Z
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@simon isn’t it better the first format if keys are meant to be unique? And if you need to find entries by key?
(DIR) Post #ASOHV76LCI3wc2PUKO by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-02-06T03:45:34Z
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@ernesto That's what I always think... and then when I actually access the API I inevitably find a reason to write code that turns it back into an array again
(DIR) Post #ASOHhLQlkKnGWtnVPE by pearofdoom@cloudisland.nz
2023-02-06T03:45:40Z
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@simon is that a csv?
(DIR) Post #ASOHv6PWO5dK02m3O4 by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-02-06T03:49:12Z
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Here's the initial issue that brought this problem to mind: https://github.com/simonw/datasette/issues/1558Then I thought back on my interactions with this kind of API and realized that I very often end up writing code to turn the key/object structures into an array of objects-with-keys instead when I actually want to render them or process them in some wayOptimizing for lookup-by-key turns out not to be as useful as I always expect it to be
(DIR) Post #ASOI6dS3slVPeySg76 by somelinguist@mastodon.social
2023-02-06T03:52:00Z
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@simon This happened to me just the other day. I wrote the format, then went to write the code that would use the format, and after a few lines… What was I thinking? It obviously works better as an array. One of these days.
(DIR) Post #ASOIPm0SIfiZh5ftNg by onelson@mastodon.social
2023-02-06T03:59:13Z
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@simon I suppose "it depends" on the specifics, as usual, but I agree and disagree at the same time 🤣I like "structures that make the representation of invalid states impossible" and so on, so key/value makes good sense for this. If the code in question isn't responsible for controlling and ensuring one record per id, then a plain array of records is often more useful for a variety of cases.
(DIR) Post #ASOKmthk2osi8d4kfA by danmayer@ruby.social
2023-02-06T04:25:36Z
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@simon I do too, but it mostly feels like that is because all the built-in language transformations for array's are simpler and easier to chain than hash transforms. Not sure if that is really true, but I know I have had this gut reaction when creating API responses a few times in recent weeks.
(DIR) Post #ASOOYDzIkWN6WCY2Pw by josephholsten@mstdn.social
2023-02-06T05:07:58Z
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@simon hey, you’ve discovered how terraform transforms all JSON input into its AST! Also, this is why we can’t round trip serialize JSON terraform config.
(DIR) Post #ASOdHMRpXYEx99JDsW by ulf@mastodon.online
2023-02-06T07:52:46Z
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@simon i gues it depends if "id" is your main search index. if you only search for one specific keyres = arr[key] # gimme all data ...if you search for specific properties it's better to use list of dictres = [item.get(prop) for item in arr]
(DIR) Post #ASP512GJcUlecnvWUq by hynek@mastodon.social
2023-02-06T13:03:53Z
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@simon JSON:API has been preaching that for years :)
(DIR) Post #ASPAMpEpDtVINCRIe0 by masukomi@connectified.com
2023-02-06T14:03:34Z
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@simon 🤔is it just that you end up wanting summarized info more often than specific data points?
(DIR) Post #ASPAZm7q6i2oU4LYjw by tintvrtkovic@mastodon.social
2023-02-06T14:03:34Z
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@simon This irks me on account of making it technically possible to have the same key twice in the array. Although I see your point, for example Mongo has much richer operators for arrays than it has for object keys.
(DIR) Post #ASPE6elkmJ1p5VO2wS by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-02-06T14:45:32Z
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@masukomi I inevitably want to loop through it in something that provides a stable order
(DIR) Post #ASPFTl0NrJdd2ioEEq by BlindMansBinary@hachyderm.io
2023-02-06T15:00:28Z
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@simon I think I run into this everytime I try to do something serious with jq.
(DIR) Post #ASPKBcq7yjlEHDBYbg by jonathan_s@fosstodon.org
2023-02-06T15:52:27Z
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@simon Yes, I've been doing that as well. As an API response, it doesn't have to transfer a "search index", but only the data. "id" is a property you want within the object, and in the client too often you want to search on other fields too, so transferring a mapping too often isn't helpful.
(DIR) Post #ASPUNvRTdkmMzI9vQO by adam@ruby.social
2023-02-06T17:47:41Z
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@simon in the Rails world there’s a joke to never use ‘has_one’ unless you know for 100% certain there’s no possible way you’ll get ever need ‘has_many’.Even then I’ve still made the mistake. 😂
(DIR) Post #ASPUmHX1AEQWRkMfhY by glyph@mastodon.social
2023-02-06T17:52:23Z
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@simon same. JSON *looks* like it has maps, but it actually only has structs
(DIR) Post #ASQXg1yQaaFVTfr9ou by trentm@hachyderm.io
2023-02-07T05:59:04Z
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@simon yes. Always this.