Accessing values from a nested JSON file in python

Question

This is the cred.json file I am trying to parse in my program.

{"accounts":[
        {
                "id":"1",
                "username":"user1",
                "password":"password1"
        },
        {
                "id":"2",
                "username":"user2",
                "password":"password2"
        }
]}

Here is the code I use for it. This works, but I know it isn't the best way to do it.

import json

with open('cred.json') as cred_file:
        parsed_json = json.load(cred_file)
        cred_file.close

        for x in range(0,2):
                user = parsed_json["accounts"][x]["username"]
                password = parsed_json["accounts"][x]["password"]
                print user, ":", password

I want to do the same thing, without specifying the range for the loop. When I try to do the same with iteritems() or get() it is giving me error saying unicode doesn't support those functions.

Please suggest me a better way to do this.

aneroid · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-26 01:50:50Z

3

parsed_json has the entire dict loaded, which contains one key "account" whose value is a list of accounts, as dicts. So instead doing of the range+index lookup, loop over the accounts list directly:

for account in parsed_json["accounts"]:
    user = account["username"]
    password = account["password"]
    print user, ":", password

Also, you don't need cred_file.close (which should be cred_file.close() btw) since it closes after you exit the with context. The correct way would be:

with open('cred.json') as cred_file:
    parsed_json = json.load(cred_file)

for account in parsed_json["accounts"]:
    user = account["username"]
    password = account["password"]
    print user, ":", password

answered Oct 26, 2017 at 1:50

aneroid

16.7k3 gold badges42 silver badges77 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

hax Over a year ago

Thanks a lot. I missed noticing that 'accounts' was a list.

Aleksandr Kurlov · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-26 04:27:36Z

0

With Python 3

import json
with open('cred.json') as f:
    lines_read = f.readlines()

json_str = ''.join(lines_read)
json_dict = json.loads(json_str)

for account in json_dict['accounts']:
    user = account['username']
    password = account['password']
    print(user, ':', password)

The basic idea is to use python's iterators.

edited Oct 26, 2017 at 4:27

Aleksandr Kurlov

31 silver badge2 bronze badges

answered Oct 26, 2017 at 1:59

Han Ye

1582 silver badges8 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Accessing values from a nested JSON file in python

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related