I am trying to extract usernames from updates that I receive, but I am encountering a specific problem. For certain users, the property $update[‘sender’][‘nickname’] holds the Telegram username, while for others, this value is absent. What methods can I use to consistently obtain the username field when utilizing the Telegram Bot API?
One thing to keep in mind is that not all Telegram users might have set a username, which could be why you’re not always getting a value. You could try to handle these cases by first checking if the username exists and, if not, using other identifiers like the user’s first or last name as a fallback. Also, ensure your API call properties are being parsed correctly on all occasions and consider caching user data if possible to avoid frequent requests.