Retrieve recognised text from JSON returned by Microsoft OCR The Microsoft OCR API returns json, and if I want to extact the text data from this json:

response = \
{
  "language": "en",
  "textAngle": -2.0000000000000338,
  "orientation": "Up",
  "regions": [
    {
      "boundingBox": "462,379,497,258",
      "lines": [
        {
          "boundingBox": "462,379,497,74",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": "462,379,41,73",
              "text": "A"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": "523,379,153,73",
              "text": "GOAL"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": "694,379,265,74",
              "text": "WITHOUT"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "boundingBox": "565,471,289,74",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": "565,471,41,73",
              "text": "A"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": "626,471,150,73",
              "text": "PLAN"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": "801,472,53,73",
              "text": "IS"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "boundingBox": "519,563,375,74",
          "words": [
            {
              "boundingBox": "519,563,149,74",
              "text": "JUST"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": "683,564,41,72",
              "text": "A"
            },
            {
              "boundingBox": "741,564,153,73",
              "text": "WISH"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}




def check_for_word(ocr):
    # Initialise our subject to None
    print("OCR: {}".format(ocr))
    subject = None
    for region in ocr["regions"]:
        if "lines" in region:
          for lines in region["lines"]:
            if "words" in lines:
              for word in lines["words"]:
                if "text" in word:
                  subject = word["text"].lower()
                  break

    print("OCR word is {}".format(subject))
    return subject

print(response["regions"][0]["lines"][0]["words"][0]["text"]) # Should return this

print(check_for_word(response))



Each dictionary has arrays and we are unsure if the array contains any element
Also not sure if the dictionary has key


Let's say we just wish to return the first text it matched from the image file. 

This code works but it has a deep nested structure that has bad smell. Is there a better practice to write this in a cleaner way?
One way to almost halve the number of lines (and levels of indentation) needed is to use dict.get with [] as the optional default option:

def check_for_word(ocr):
    for region in ocr["regions"]:
        for lines in region.get("lines", []):
            for word in lines.get("words", []):
                if "text" in word:
                    return word["text"].lower()
    else:
        raise KeyError("OCR word not found")


I would also move the printing outside the function, so you can immediately return and add a else clause to catch the case that it is not present (this part could also be done outside with your code by checking for None).