JSON

JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a syntax for serializing different data types in human-readable text form. Within Python it is implemented as the json module and the data model is similar as a dictionary.

Convert from JSON to Python

Python has a built-in JSON parser called the json module. This module can be used to convert JSON data to Python objects. In the example below a JSON string is converted to a Python dictionary with json.loads() and can be accessed as a Python dictionary.

Example
 1#!/usr/bin/env python3
 2
 3import json
 4
 5def main():
 6    x =  '{"name":"jack","age":42,"city":"Chicago"}'
 7    y = json.loads(x)
 8    print(y["age"])
 9
10
11if __name__ == "__main__":
12    main()
Output
142

Convert from Python to JSON

The Python module json can be used to convert Python objects to JSON data. In the example below a Python dictionary is converted to a JSON string with json.dumps().

Example
 1#!/usr/bin/env python3
 2
 3import json
 4
 5def main():
 6    x = {
 7        "name": "Jack",
 8        "age": 42,
 9        "city": "Chicago"
10    }
11    y = json.dumps(x)
12    print(y)
13
14
15if __name__ == "__main__":
16    main()
Output
1"{ \"name\":\"jack\", \"age\":42, \"city\":\"Chicago\"}"

When you convert from Python to JSON, Python objects are converted into the JSON (JavaScript) equivalent:

Python

JSON

dict

Object

list

Array

tuple

Array

str

String

int

Number

float

Number

True

true

False

false

None

null
Example
 1#!/usr/bin/env python3
 2
 3import json
 4
 5def main():
 6    print(json.dumps({"name": "Jack", "age": 42}))
 7    print(json.dumps(["apple", "bananas"]))
 8    print(json.dumps(("apple", "bananas")))
 9    print(json.dumps("hello"))
10    print(json.dumps(42))
11    print(json.dumps(31.76))
12    print(json.dumps(True))
13    print(json.dumps(False))
14    print(json.dumps(None))
15
16
17if __name__ == "__main__":
18    main()
Output
1"{"name":"Jack","age":42}"
2"[\"apple\",\"bananas\"]"
3"[\"apple\",\"bananas\"]"
4"\"hello\""
5"42"
6"31.76"
7"true"
8"false"
9"null"

Format the Result

Use the indent parameter to define the numbers of indents:

Example
1json.dumps(x, indent=4)

Use the separators parameter to change the default separator:

Example
1json.dumps(x, indent=4, separators=(". ", " = "))

Use the sort_keys parameter to specify if the result should be sorted or not:

Example
1json.dumps(x, indent=4, sort_keys=True)