Parsing JSON output efficiently in Python?

Question

The below block of code works however I'm not satisfied that it is very optimal due to my limited understanding of using JSON but I can't seem to figure out a more efficient method.

The steam_game_db is like this:

{
    "applist": {
        "apps": [
            {
                "appid": 5,
                "name": "Dedicated Server"
            },
            {
                "appid": 7,
                "name": "Steam Client"
            },
            {
                "appid": 8,
                "name": "winui2"
            },
            {
                "appid": 10,
                "name": "Counter-Strike"
            }
        ]
    }
}

and my Python code so far is

i = 0
x = 570

req_name_from_id = requests.get(steam_game_db)
j = req_name_from_id.json()

while j["applist"]["apps"][i]["appid"] != x:
    i+=1
returned_game = j["applist"]["apps"][i]["name"]
print(returned_game)

Instead of looping through the entire app list is there a smarter way to perhaps search for it? Ideally the elements in the data structure with 'appid' and 'name' were numbered the same as their corresponding 'appid'

i.e. appid 570 in the list is Dota2 However element 570 in the data structure in appid 5069 and Red Faction

Also what type of data structure is this? Perhaps it has limited my searching ability for this answer already. (I.e. seems like a dictionary of 'appid' and 'element' to me for each element?)

EDIT: Changed to a for loop as suggested

# returned_id string for appid from another query

req_name_from_id = requests.get(steam_game_db)
j_2 = req_name_from_id.json()

for app in j_2["applist"]["apps"]:
    if app["appid"] == int(returned_id):
        returned_game = app["name"]

print(returned_game)

Answer 1

The most convenient way to access things by a key (like the app ID here) is to use a dictionary.

You pay a little extra performance cost up-front to fill the dictionary, but after that pulling out values by ID is basically free.

However, it's a trade-off. If you only want to do a single look-up during the life-time of your Python program, then paying that extra performance cost to build the dictionary won't be beneficial, compared to a simple loop like you already did. But if you want to do multiple look-ups, it will be beneficial.

# build dictionary
app_by_id = {}
for app in j["applist"]["apps"]:
  app_by_id[app["appid"]] = app["name"]

# use it
print(app_by_id["570"])

Also think about caching the JSON file on disk. This will save time during your program's startup.