title: Accessing arrays/lists within parameters using Flask
body: <p>I'm tinkering with Flask + Datatables + Mongo to create a test web app. I'm using Datatables' in server-side data mode, and the parameters it's sending in request data are as follows: </p>
  
  <pre><code>columns[0][data]
  columns[1][name]
  columns[1][orderable]
  columns[3][data]
  columns[2][orderable]
  columns[3][searchable]
  order[0][dir]
  columns[1][search][regex]
  columns[3][orderable]
  columns[0][search][value]
  columns[2][searchable]
  columns[3][search][regex]
  columns[0][search][regex]
  start
  columns[0][searchable]
  draw
  columns[2][search][value]
  columns[2][search][regex]
  columns[1][data]
  order[0][column]
  columns[1][searchable]
  columns[0][name]
  columns[2][data]
  columns[0][orderable]
  search[value]
  columns[3][name]
  _
  search[regex]
  columns[1][search][value]
  columns[2][name]
  length
  columns[3][search][value]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So as an example, I'd like to be able to access the "order" list to do things like </p>
  
  <pre><code>len(order)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>To see how many items are in the list, but I can't because Flask is seeing each parameter as a separate item instead of lists. Is there any way to safely fix this? </p>
  
  <p>In the Datatables documentation (<a href="https://datatables.net/manual/server-side" rel="nofollow">https://datatables.net/manual/server-side</a>) it says: "In most modern server-side scripting environments this data will automatically be available to you as an array." </p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.</p>