Maximum number of comments from Youtube video with API?

Question

What Java API code to use to retrieve more than 50 comments for selected video? Or this is impossible? Thanks!

Answer 1

According to the documentation, the maximum value for the max-results parameter is 50. However, it is possible to create a loop that reads 50 items per iteration using the start-index parameter:

• http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/gzDS-Kfd5XQ/comments?v=2&alt=json&start-index=1&max-results=50&prettyprint=true
• http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/gzDS-Kfd5XQ/comments?v=2&alt=json&start-index=51&max-results=50&prettyprint=true
• http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/gzDS-Kfd5XQ/comments?v=2&alt=json&start-index=101&max-results=50&prettyprint=true
• ...

Notes:

1. The returned feed contains a property called openSearch$totalResults which gives you (approximate) number of total results. Or you can exit the loop when you get less than 50 results.
2. You can use alt=rss or alt=atom if you want data in XML format
3. prettyprint=true parameter is added for readability only

Answer 2

From what I've researched, it seems the max amount of results (videos/comments) you can retrieve is 50, but it is not recommended. See here