Convert Python dictionary to JSON object without string key

Question

I had created a kaggle Notebook kernel -Please Checkout it- with countries of the world data source, in order to obtain a list of JSON objects that handles each country and its respective population, because I want to use a textual copy of it in JavaScript.

I used the following code:

data = []

import csv
import json
import os
for dirname, _, filenames in os.walk('/kaggle/input'):
    for filename in filenames:
        file_name = os.path.join(dirname, filename)
        print(file_name)
        print('Done!')

# Any results you write to the current directory are saved as output.
# LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING Method:
def load_tokens(tokens_file):
    try:
        with open(tokens_file) as csvDataFile:
            csvReader = csv.reader(csvDataFile)

            for i,row in enumerate(csvReader):

                data.insert(i,json.loads(json.dumps({'country':row[0].strip(), 'population':row[2].strip()})))

The active code here is load_tokens() method. What I have ended with is an output print(data) like the following:

[{'country': 'Country', 'population': 'Population'}, {'country': 'Afghanistan', 'population': '31056997'}, {'country': 'Albania', 'population': '3581655'}, {'country': 'Algeria', 'population': '32930091'},...]

My problem here is the dictionary keys. i.e. 'country' and 'population' I don't want them to be strings. I need them to be JSON object's keys like found in JavaScript:

[{country: 'Country', population: 'Population'},{country: 'Afghanistan', population: '31056997'},...

It's not clear what you want. {country: 'Country'} is only well defined if country is a defined variable (whose value is hashable). Why exactly do you think {'country': 'Country', ....} is a problem. — chepner
– chepner, Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 22:08
"because I want to use a textual copy of it in JavaScript." So you are trying to generate JavaScript code? — chepner
– chepner, Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 22:09
Calling json.loads(json.dumps(...)) seems pointless to me. What are you trying to achieve by loading the JSON back into Python objects? — Seb
– Seb, Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 22:13
@chepner I think that the key as a text 'country' will not be accessed as a property in JavaScript. i.e. obj.country will not work in a loop. Yes, I try to generate JavaScript array of JSON objects. — SaidbakR
– SaidbakR, Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 23:14
@Seb You are right, but it was a trying to convert the key from text. — SaidbakR
– SaidbakR, Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 23:15

Johan Schiff · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-29 22:38:05Z

1

Well formatted JSON should use strings as keys, like this: {"country": "Country"}

The fact that you can declare objects using {country: "Country"} in js is just a convenience shortcut. Declaring with quotes works the same, or sometimes better (your key can use +/- and other chars).

Don't convert from JSON back to python objects (using json.loads()), though. Python objects are not JSON objects, and even in how they are displayed there are subtle differences.

answered Mar 29, 2020 at 22:38

Johan Schiff

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1 Comment

SaidbakR Over a year ago

Good hint indeed.

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