Convert JSON string to dict using Python [duplicate]

Question

I'm a little bit confused with JSON in Python. To me, it seems like a dictionary, and for that reason I'm trying to do that:

{
    "glossary":
    {
        "title": "example glossary",
        "GlossDiv":
        {
            "title": "S",
            "GlossList":
            {
                "GlossEntry":
                {
                    "ID": "SGML",
                    "SortAs": "SGML",
                    "GlossTerm": "Standard Generalized Markup Language",
                    "Acronym": "SGML",
                    "Abbrev": "ISO 8879:1986",
                    "GlossDef":
                    {
                        "para": "A meta-markup language, used to create markup languages such as DocBook.",
                        "GlossSeeAlso": ["GML", "XML"]
                    },
                    "GlossSee": "markup"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

But when I do print(dict(json)), I get an error.

How can I transform this string into a structure and then call json["title"] to obtain "example glossary"?

David Leon · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-24 08:28:23Z

851

json.loads()

import json

d = json.loads(j)
print d['glossary']['title']

edited Jul 24, 2018 at 8:28

David Leon

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answered Dec 24, 2010 at 19:51

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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6 Comments

Shivam Agrawal Over a year ago

What is the difference between json.load and json.loads ?

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Over a year ago

@ShivamAgrawal: Exactly what it says on the tin.

fyngyrz Over a year ago

@ShivamAgrawal: The difference is that .load() parses a file object; .loads() parses a string / unicode object.

Jacques Mathieu Over a year ago

It bothers me that the author of this function did not write a wrapper function to perform a type check on the data being passed in to automatically choose the right function to call. I also do not like the vague nomenclature used. Here is what I wrote to combat this:

def read_json(json_data):     if (type(json_data) == str):         return json.loads(json_data)     elif (str(type(json_data)) == "<class '_io.TextIOWrapper'>"):         return json.load(json_data)

I'm sure this can be improved, but now you can call d = read_json(j) on a json 'str' or 'file'.

Gabriel Aizcorbe Over a year ago

@JacquesMathieu, Hi Jacques, thanx for your function, I did a minor improvement since I sometimes use dictionaries: def read_json(json_data): if (type(json_data) == str): # For strings return json.loads(json_data) elif (str(type(json_data)) == "<class '_io.TextIOWrapper'>"): #For files return json.load(json_data) elif (type(json_data) == dict): # For dictionaries return json.loads(json.dumps(json_data))

|

Hussain · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-23 10:43:12Z

118

When I started using json, I was confused and unable to figure it out for some time, but finally I got what I wanted
Here is the simple solution

import json
m = {'id': 2, 'name': 'hussain'}
n = json.dumps(m)
o = json.loads(n)
print(o['id'], o['name'])

edited Jan 23, 2020 at 10:43

answered Sep 17, 2012 at 7:59

Hussain

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3 Comments

Han Van Pham Over a year ago

Why are you dumps(m) first?

Hussain Over a year ago

I used it to demonstrate serialization and deserialization. Using loads(..) on '{"id": 2, "name": "hussain"}' should also be fine like the accepted answer.

Mohammed Sufian Over a year ago

dumps and loads works perfect for me, while the accepted answer isn't, thanks a lot @Hussain for saving me a time, FYI, I'm trying to loads from dynamic strings with utf-8 encoding...

kakhkAtion · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-19 22:49:03Z

25

If you trust the data source, you can use eval to convert your string into a dictionary:

eval(your_json_format_string)

Example:

>>> x = "{'a' : 1, 'b' : True, 'c' : 'C'}"
>>> y = eval(x)

>>> print x
{'a' : 1, 'b' : True, 'c' : 'C'}
>>> print y
{'a': 1, 'c': 'C', 'b': True}

>>> print type(x), type(y)
<type 'str'> <type 'dict'>

>>> print y['a'], type(y['a'])
1 <type 'int'>

>>> print y['a'], type(y['b'])
1 <type 'bool'>

>>> print y['a'], type(y['c'])
1 <type 'str'>

answered Apr 19, 2018 at 22:49

kakhkAtion

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6 Comments

bfontaine Over a year ago

The string in your example is not JSON.

kakhkAtion Over a year ago

True. It evals to a dictionary tho, which can easily be loaded/dumped as JSON (and of course you might need a custom json encoder function if your dictionary has none json values).

NetworkMeister Over a year ago

No. You should never evaluate input data as a code. This may be your little pet project that uses data you trust, but bad code can be reused and bad practices repeated in real projects, leaving a big security code.

kakhkAtion Over a year ago

And that's why my answer starts with "if you trust the data source"! But true, this is more of a hack, and definitely not the best practice.

Vadorequest Over a year ago

You can totally trust the data source if it's your own. This is actually useful to convert a stringified JS object into a dic into a proper JSON string.

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jassinm · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-26 20:33:36Z

22

use simplejson or cjson for speedups

import simplejson as json

json.loads(obj)

or 

cjson.decode(obj)

answered Dec 26, 2010 at 20:33

jassinm

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