Merged in feature/update-universal-json (pull request #634)

Feature/update universal json

* update string utils

* Add flatten to string

* update comments and docstrings


Approved-by: Alex Galarce

fieldExtraction/src/utils/string_utils.py

@@ -268,11 +268,13 @@ def universal_json_load(string_dict: str):
         ValueError: If no valid JSON object is found in the input string. In addition,
         the traceback as well as the offending string are printed.
 
+    Note: if more than one json-like (or list-like) is found in the input string, this function will
+    take the last one positionally.
     """
     # Try to match dictionary or list of dictionaries first
-    dict_match = re.search(r"\{.*\}|\[\s*?\{.*\}\s*?\]", string_dict, re.DOTALL)
-    if dict_match:
-        matched_str = dict_match.group()
+    dict_matches = re.findall(r"\{.*\}|\[\s*?\{.*\}\s*?\]", string_dict, re.DOTALL)
+    if dict_matches:
+        matched_str = dict_matches[-1] # Take the last match in the string
         try:
             return json.loads(matched_str)
         except json.JSONDecodeError as e:
@@ -282,9 +284,9 @@ def universal_json_load(string_dict: str):
             raise ValueError(f"JSON parsing failed: {e.msg} at position {e.pos}") from e
 
     # If no dict pattern found, try to match list of strings
-    list_match = re.search(r"\[(.*?)\]", string_dict, re.DOTALL)
-    if list_match:
-        matched_str = list_match.group()
+    list_matches = re.findall(r"\[(.*?)\]", string_dict, re.DOTALL)
+    if list_matches:
+        matched_str = f"[{list_matches[-1]}]" # Take the last match in the string
         try:
             # Clean up the string list before parsing
             cleaned_str = re.sub(r'(?<!\\)"', '"', matched_str)  # Handle escaped quotes