Chapter 17. hn_submissions.py, KeyError

[AlexHedgehog04]

Hello!
Working with the Hacker News API i've catched a keyerror in the first 'for' loop.

Traceback` (most recent call last):
  File "...\working_with_apis\hn_submissions.py", line 24, in <module>
    'comments': response_dict['descendants'],
KeyError: 'descendants'

But the key 'descendants' was actually in dictonary.
I checked every single literal (not literally, but nearby :) ). The code was exactly like in the book.
After time i've decided to try to decrease submission_ids from [:30] to [:10]. The error was magically disappeared. By increasing of the quantity submission_ids back to [:30] i found out, that one of thirty really dont have the key 'descendants'.
As i understand, its a problem of an API response, but it would be nice to add the way to handle the cases when some data in the API response is missing.

PS. So far i checked, nobody pushed that issue. Sorry, if someone did.

[ehmatthes]

Hi, there's an update for the second edition that addresses this: https://ehmatthes.github.io/pcc_2e/updates/sixth_printing/#chapter-17

[Windbell922]

I ran into the same issue while working on Chapter 17. Luckily, I came across your message; otherwise, I'd still be stuck. By the way, when I was using try-except-else, I referenced {submission_id} to pinpoint which wretched ID caused the error - it was 36924518! Hahahaha!

[shensuii]

Hello! Working with the Hacker News API i've catched a keyerror in the first 'for' loop.

Traceback` (most recent call last):
  File "...\working_with_apis\hn_submissions.py", line 24, in <module>
    'comments': response_dict['descendants'],
KeyError: 'descendants'

But the key 'descendants' was actually in dictonary. I checked every single literal (not literally, but nearby :) ). The code was exactly like in the book. After time i've decided to try to decrease submission_ids from [:30] to [:10]. The error was magically disappeared. By increasing of the quantity submission_ids back to [:30] i found out, that one of thirty really dont have the key 'descendants'. As i understand, its a problem of an API response, but it would be nice to add the way to handle the cases when some data in the API response is missing.

PS. So far i checked, nobody pushed that issue. Sorry, if someone did.

i encounter the same situation, thanks for your solution