chuck_norris.py

################################################################################
#
# Program: Random Chuck Norris Joke Generator
#
# Description: Example of generating a random Chuck Norris joke using Python
# and this random Chuck Norris joke web service/API: http://www.icndb.com/api/.
#
# YouTube Lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtcpfn-2cxM
#
# Author: Kevin Browne @ https://portfoliocourses.com
#
################################################################################

# Use the requests module to make the HTTP requests to the web API.
import requests

# Prompt the user for first name and last name strings and store them into these
# variables to be used as values in our request to the API
first_name = input("First Name: ")
last_name = input("Last Name: ")

# The url (endpoint) for the Chuck Norris random joke API as specified by
# the API documentation.
url = "http://api.icndb.com/jokes/random"

# Set the request parameters according to the API documentation such that
# we limit the jokes to "nerdy" category jokes, and customize the subject
# of the joke such that the joke is about a person with the first name and
# last name that the user entered when prompted.
params = {"limitTo" : "[nerdy]",
          "firstName" : first_name,
          "lastName" : last_name}

# Make the request to the API using the url and params we've set above, we'll
# use response to deal with the response object.
response = requests.get(url, params)

# The API returns JSON formatted data, we use the .json() method to get back
# a Python dictionary representation of this JSON data, and then we access
# the value at the key value followed by the key joke.  We know that the joke
# is at this location due to looking at the format of the response from
# the API.
joke = response.json()["value"]["joke"]

# Output the joke to the terminal
print(joke)