Handling Nested Arrays with Variable Depth in Python for Data Processing
I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here, but I'm a bit lost with I'm building a feature where I've searched everywhere and can't find a clear answer... I'm relatively new to this, so bear with me. I'm working on a Python application that processes JSON data, and I'm faced with a scenario when it comes to handling nested arrays with variable depth. The JSON structure can have arrays that contain other arrays, and I need to extract specific values from them regardless of their depth. My current approach involves using a recursive function, but I'm running into issues with maximum recursion depth and performance. Here's a simplified version of the code I've written: ```python import json def extract_values(nested_array, key): result = [] for item in nested_array: if isinstance(item, list): result.extend(extract_values(item, key)) elif isinstance(item, dict): if key in item: result.append(item[key]) return result # Sample JSON data that I am working with json_data = ''' [ {"name": "Alice", "details": [{"age": 30}, {"hobbies": ["reading", "biking"]}]}, {"name": "Bob", "details": [{"age": 25, "hobbies": ["painting"]}]} ] ''' nested_array = json.loads(json_data) # Trying to extract all ages ages = extract_values(nested_array, 'age') print(ages) # Expected: [30, 25] ``` The question arises when my JSON data has deeply nested arrays, which leads to a `RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded`. I've tried increasing the recursion limit using `sys.setrecursionlimit()`, but that doesn't seem to solve the performance optimization I'm working with with large datasets. Additionally, I noticed that for some datasets, the function returns an empty array, potentially because paths to the target key are not being traversed correctly. Is there a better way to handle this situation? Should I consider using an iterative approach instead of recursion? Any insights on optimizing this code would be greatly appreciated, especially regarding handling cases with unpredictable data depth and large sizes efficiently. My development environment is Linux. I'd really appreciate any guidance on this. This is part of a larger CLI tool I'm building. Any help would be greatly appreciated! This is part of a larger service I'm building. Thanks for your help in advance! Thanks in advance! Any ideas how to fix this?