Storing json data in python

Question

Is there a way to easily store json data in a variable in python. I don't mean the entire json in a variable, rather parsing and storing it as a key-value.

For instance - if this is the json file

[
   [
      1,
      "Apple"
   ],
   [
      2,
      "Orange"
   ],
   [
      3,
      "Grapes"
   ],
   [
      4,
      "Banana"
   ],
   [
      5,
      "Mango"
   ]
]

I want to have a list or some other datatype in python through which I can easily access the data.

Something like variable[1] should print Apple and so on

Chris · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-26 18:46:39Z

6

Yes. You can use the json module. Specifically json.loads. However, if you also want a key value association between your data, you'll need to use a dictionary:

from json import loads

json_data = \
"""
[
    [1, "Apple"],
    [2, "Orange"],
    [3, "Grapes"],
    [4, "Banana"],
    [5, "Mango"]
]
"""

data = dict(loads(json_data))
print(data)
# {1: u'Apple', 2: u'Orange', 3: u'Grapes', 4: u'Banana', 5: u'Mango'}

answered Aug 26, 2017 at 18:46

Chris

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Comments

holdenweb · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-26 18:51:09Z

Unsurprisingly, you need the json module.

In [29]: import json

In [30]: data = '''[
    ...:    [
    ...:       1,
    ...:       "Apple"
    ...:    ],
    ...:    [
    ...:       2,
    ...:       "Orange"
    ...:    ],
    ...:    [
    ...:       3,
    ...:       "Grapes"
    ...:    ],
    ...:    [
    ...:       4,
    ...:       "Banana"
    ...:    ],
    ...:    [
    ...:       5,
    ...:       "Mango"
    ...:    ]
    ...: ]'''

In [31]: json.loads(data)
Out[31]: [[1, 'Apple'], [2, 'Orange'], [3, 'Grapes'], [4, 'Banana'], [5, 'Mango']]

The module also contains functions to handle data in files.

To extract the fruit names by numerical key could be done in several ways, but they all involve transforming the data further. For example:

In [32]: fruits = []

In [33]: for key, name in json.loads(data):
    ...:     fruits.append(name)
    ...:

In [34]: fruits[0]
Out[34]: 'Apple'

Here Python's zero-based indexing slightly defeats the value of this solution given that the keys start with 1. A dictionary gives you exactly what you need. If you call the dict constructor with a list of pairs it will treat them as key, value pairs.

In [35]: fruits = dict(json.loads(data))

In [36]: fruits[1]
Out[36]: 'Apple'

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