Can you JSON loads a list?
Python JSONIn this tutorial, you will learn to parse, read and write JSON in Python with the help of examples. Also, you will learn to convert JSON to dict and pretty print it. Show
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a popular data format used for representing structured data. It's common to transmit and receive data between a server and web application in JSON format. In Python, JSON exists as a string. For example: p = '{"name": "Bob", "languages": ["Python", "Java"]}'It's also common to store a JSON object in a file. Import json ModuleTo work with JSON (string, or file containing JSON object), you can use Python's json module. You need to import the module before you can use it. import jsonParse JSON in PythonThe json module makes it easy to parse JSON strings and files containing JSON object. Example 1: Python JSONto dictYou can parse a JSON string using json.loads() method. The method returns a dictionary. import json person = '{"name": "Bob", "languages": ["English", "Fench"]}' person_dict = json.loads(person) # Output: {'name': 'Bob', 'languages': ['English', 'Fench']} print( person_dict) # Output: ['English', 'French'] print(person_dict['languages'])Here, person is a JSON string, and person_dict is a dictionary. Example 2: Python read JSON fileYou can use json.load() method to read a file containing JSON object. Suppose, you have a file named person.json which contains a JSON object. {"name": "Bob", "languages": ["English", "Fench"] }Here's how you can parse this file: import json with open('path_to_file/person.json') as f: data = json.load(f) # Output: {'name': 'Bob', 'languages': ['English', 'Fench']} print(data)Here, we have used the open() function to read the json file. Then, the file is parsed using json.load() method which gives us a dictionary named data. If you do not know how to read and write files in Python, we recommend you to check Python File I/O. Python Convert to JSON stringYou can convert a dictionary to JSON string using json.dumps() method. Example 3: Convert dict to JSONimport json person_dict = {'name': 'Bob', 'age': 12, 'children': None } person_json = json.dumps(person_dict) # Output: {"name": "Bob", "age": 12, "children": null} print(person_json)Here's a table showing Python objects and their equivalent conversion to JSON.
Writing JSON to a fileTo write JSON to a file in Python, we can use json.dump() method. Example 4: Writing JSON to a fileimport json person_dict = {"name": "Bob", "languages": ["English", "Fench"], "married": True, "age": 32 } with open('person.txt', 'w') as json_file: json.dump(person_dict, json_file)In the above program, we have opened a file named person.txt in writing mode using 'w'. If the file doesn't already exist, it will be created. Then, json.dump() transforms person_dict to a JSON string which will be saved in the person.txt file. When you run the program, the person.txt file will be created. The file has following text inside it. Python pretty print JSONTo analyze and debug JSON data, we may need to print it in a more readable format. This can be done by passing additional parameters indent and sort_keys to json.dumps() and json.dump() method. Example 5: Python pretty print JSONimport json person_string = '{"name": "Bob", "languages": "English", "numbers": [2, 1.6, null]}' # Getting dictionary person_dict = json.loads(person_string) # Pretty Printing JSON string back print(json.dumps(person_dict, indent = 4, sort_keys=True))When you run the program, the output will be: { "languages": "English", "name": "Bob", "numbers": [ 2, 1.6, null ] }In the above program, we have used 4 spaces for indentation. And, the keys are sorted in ascending order. By the way, the default value of indent is None. And, the default value of sort_keys is False. Recommended Readings:
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