How can I get the markdown content of an accepted answer with the StackExchange API?

Question

I'm trying to get the markdown body of an accepted answer making this request:

https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/search/advanced?accepted=True&title=length%20undefined&is_answered=True&site=stackoverflow

Answer 1

Assuming you know the question id(s), you need to make a GET request to /questions/{ids} and get the accepted_answer_id property. Then, make another GET request to /answers/{ids} using the answer id you already have. With an appropriate filter, you can extract the body of an answer as markdown (body_markdown) or as HTML (body).

Here is the Python code:

from stackapi import StackAPI

question_id = 54428242 # a random question
sitename = "stackoverflow"
# only include accepted_answer_id
question_filter = "!9bOY8fLl6"
# only include body and body_markdown
answer_filter = "!-)QWsboN0d_T"

SITE = StackAPI(sitename)
question = SITE.fetch("questions/{ids}",
                      ids = question_id,
                      filter = question_filter)
accepted_answer_id = question["items"][0]["accepted_answer_id"]
answer = SITE.fetch("answers/{ids}",
                    ids = accepted_answer_id,
                    filter = answer_filter)

answer_info = answer["items"][0]
print("Answer's HTML body: ",answer_info["body"])
print("Answer's markdown body: ", answer_info["body_markdown"])

The code uses the StackAPI library (docs). You might also have noticed that I use filters to limit the return object's properties to the ones I need (and only those). I suggest you do the same.

See:

• What is the right way to create a Stack Exchange API filter?
• How can I create a filter from scratch using filter/create?
• Some fields' names - included in the default filter
• How can I use custom filters in the Stack Exchange API?

Answer 2

Fixed by using this request: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/answers/{answer_id}?order=desc&sort=activity&site=stackoverflow&filter=withbody