How To Format a JSON Text In Python?

Question

When I call the JSON file for Vincent van Gogh's List of Works wikipedia page, using this url, it obviously returns a huge blob of text which I believe is some sort of dictionary of lists.

Now, someone has already shown me Python's import wikipedia feature, so skip that. How can I decode this JSON? I feel like I have tried everything in Python 3's library, and always get an error, like I get if I try this code for example:

data = urllib.request.urlopen(long_json_url)
stuff = json.load(data)   #or json.loads(data)
print(stuff)

it returns

TypeError: the JSON object must be str, not 'bytes'

Or if I try this code:

data = urllib.request.urlopen(longurl)
json_string = data.read().decode('utf-8')
json_data = json.loads(json_string)
print(json_data)

It doesn't return an error, but just what looks like nothing

>>>

>>>

But if I highlight that empty space and paste it, it pastes the same blob of text.

{'warnings': {'main': {'*': "Unrecognized parameter: 'Page'"}}, 'query': {'normalized': [{'from': 'list of works by Vincent van Gogh',... etc

If I try a for loop:

for entry in json_data:
    print(entry)

It returns

>>> 
query
warnings
>>>

And that's it. So it's not returning an error there, but not really much else, just two values? How would you make the JSON data into a workable Python dict or list? Or at the very least, into a more vertical format that I could actually read?

it always returns an error - to save people running and trying your code - please edit what that error is into your post, as well as examples of I have tried several things - what are they - what errors/nothing do they give etc... ? — Jon Clements
– Jon Clements, Commented May 31, 2014 at 13:42
+1 from me for taking the time to improve your question - very good job :) — Jon Clements
– Jon Clements, Commented May 31, 2014 at 14:16

Ahmad · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-31 14:45:42Z

2

How would you make the JSON data into a workable Python dict or list?

You're already doing that with

json_data = json.loads(json_string)

This however:

for entry in json_data:
    print(entry)

will only print the keys of your dictionaries. If you want to print the values, you need to use:

for entry in json_data:
    print(json_data[entry])

if you inspect the data, you'll see that there are two keys for the main dictionary. The ones you already got by iterating over the dict:

{u'query': {...}, u'warnings': {...}}

edited May 31, 2014 at 14:45

answered May 31, 2014 at 14:35

Ahmad

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3 Comments

ian-campbell Over a year ago

Thank you, I suspected as much, and that is what I was afraid of. The entire blob of data in this JSON file is one single value that is mapped to one key, a key which is inside a dictionary nested in another dictionary in a dictionary in a dictionary. What on Earth is the use of this wikipedia API? Disappointing. Thank you so much for helping me realize this.

ian-campbell Over a year ago

I have begun to sort through the values in this dictionary. I am making progress. Thank you again.

Ahmad Over a year ago

@rami7 You're welcome! Yeah, unfortunately the entire actual content seems to be in some other format. Let me know, if you have any other questions.

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