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I have some large nested expression containing associations and I'd like to extract the nth key inside one of them, using part syntax.

Here's a tiny example:

a = {1, <|w->x, b->{y,z}|>};

I'd like to extract the first key using part syntax, is it even possible without using functions like Query or PositionIndexor Normal or Keys?

a[[2, ?]] == w
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    $\begingroup$ I think Query is the best fit. Something like Query[2, Keys /* {1}]@a $\endgroup$
    – Edmund
    Nov 10, 2017 at 0:50
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    $\begingroup$ As a short answer: no, you cannot extract keys using Part syntax. Part can only extract values. You can use keys as Part specifications, but you will always get values out. $\endgroup$
    – Sjoerd Smit
    Nov 10, 2017 at 9:38
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    $\begingroup$ Maybe a // PositionIndex[#[[2]]][[1]] & ? $\endgroup$
    – user1066
    Nov 10, 2017 at 10:06
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    $\begingroup$ To put it more bluntly than Sjoerd: Associations are atomic objects and are not even meant to be accessed with Part in the traditional sense. In my interpretation, Part was specially overloaded for Association. $\endgroup$
    – LLlAMnYP
    Nov 10, 2017 at 12:02
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    $\begingroup$ You can do this as First @ Keys @ a[[2, {1}]], where the heavy lifting is still done by Part. By wrapping the last position in a List, we tell the Part that we want to preserve the head, which is an assoc, so you get back <|w -> x|>. This should generalize to any other such case you want. This is similar to the suggestion of @Edmund, except that we don't have the overhead of Query. $\endgroup$
    – Leonid Shifrin
    Nov 10, 2017 at 13:37

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