Trouble reading JSON object in Python

Question

I have a JSON object that I am trying to read using Python but I am having some issues. I have a file named "test.txt" which contains the received JSON object. The contents of "test.txt" are as follows:

{ "Sections": {"Now": "Thursday 3 February 2011 08:31",  "Section": [ { "Article": [ {"audioCounter": 0, "commentsCounter": 0, "Exceprt": "Category 5 cyclone slams into flood-hit Queensland", "hasMore": "true", "ID": 44871, "important": "False", "likesCounter": 0, "photoCounter": 0, "time": "20:58", "timeStamp": "2\/2\/2011 8:59:37 PM", "timeStatus": "True", "Title": "Category 5 cyclone slams into flood-hit Queensland", "Type": "Politics", "videoCounter": 0, "viewsCounter": 2 }, {"audioCounter": 0, "commentsCounter": 0, "Exceprt": "The White House: Egypt must begin a peaceful and orderly transition of power immediately", "hasMore": "false", "ID": 44868, "important": "True", "likesCounter": 0, "photoCounter": 0, "time": "20:51", "timeStamp": "2\/2\/2011 8:52:28 PM", "timeStatus": "True", "Title": "The White House: Egypt must begin a peaceful and orderly transition of power immediately", "Type": "Politics", "videoCounter": 0, "viewsCounter": 0 }, {"audioCounter": 0, "commentsCounter": 0, "Exceprt": "Bazzi: Berri endeavors to facilitate cabinet formation", "hasMore": "true", "ID": 44866, "important": "False", "likesCounter": 0, "photoCounter": 0, "time": "20:47", "timeStamp": "2\/2\/2011 8:48:18 PM", "timeStatus": "True", "Title": "Bazzi: Berri endeavors to facilitate cabinet formation", "Type": "Politics", "videoCounter": 0, "viewsCounter": 0 }, {"audioCounter": 0, "commentsCounter": 0, "Exceprt": "Saker via Future News: Opening files era has ended, Gen. Aoun can\u0027t open any corruption files since his allies were the pioneers of corruption", "hasMore": "false", "ID": 44865, "important": "False", "likesCounter": 0, "photoCounter": 0, "time": "20:41", "timeStamp": "2\/2\/2011 8:45:36 PM", "timeStatus": "True", "Title": "Saker via Future News: Opening files era has ended, Gen. Aoun can\u0027t open any corruption files since his allies were the pioneers of corruption", "Type": "Politics", "videoCounter": 0, "viewsCounter": 0 }, {"audioCounter": 0, "commentsCounter": 0, "Exceprt": "White House deplores violence in Egypt", "hasMore": "true", "ID": 44857, "important": "False", "likesCounter": 0, "photoCounter": 0, "time": "20:28", "timeStamp": "2\/2\/2011 8:29:26 PM", "timeStatus": "True", "Title": "White House deplores violence in Egypt", "Type": "Politics", "videoCounter": 0, "viewsCounter": 1 }, {"audioCounter": 0, "commentsCounter": 0, "Exceprt": "Baabda sources via MTV: President Suleiman works on a consensus curriculum hoping for the formation of a national unity cabinet, if this does not happen, the cabinet will be political inlaid with technocrats", "hasMore": "false", "ID": 44855, "important": "False", "likesCounter": 0, "photoCounter": 0, "time": "20:20", "timeStamp": "2\/2\/2011 8:23:14 PM", "timeStatus": "True", "Title": "Baabda sources via MTV: President Suleiman works on a consensus curriculum hoping for the formation of a national unity cabinet, if this does not happen, the cabinet will be political inlaid with technocrats", "Type": "Politics", "videoCounter": 0, "viewsCounter": 0 }, {"audioCounter": 0, "commentsCounter": 0, "Exceprt": "An American senior official to Reuters: expects pressure on Mubarak by the army after street violence", "hasMore": "false", "ID": 44853, "important": "True", "likesCounter": 0, "photoCounter": 0, "time": "20:18", "timeStamp": "2\/2\/2011 8:20:14 PM", "timeStatus": "True", "Title": "An American senior official to Reuters: expects pressure on Mubarak by the army after street violence", "Type": "Politics", "videoCounter": 0, "viewsCounter": 0 }, {"audioCounter": 0, "commentsCounter": 0, "Exceprt": "The disappearance of the Al-Arabia correspondence Ahmed Abdullah in Egypt after clashing with Mubarak supporters", "hasMore": "false", "ID": 44851, "important": "True", "likesCounter": 0, "photoCounter": 0, "time": "20:17", "timeStamp": "2\/2\/2011 8:18:28 PM", "timeStatus": "True", "Title": "The disappearance of the Al-Arabia correspondence Ahmed Abdullah in Egypt after clashing with Mubarak supporters", "Type": "Politics", "videoCounter": 0, "viewsCounter": 0 } ], "ID": 22, "Name": "EN Live", "totalNews": 2997 } ] }}

My python script:

import json;
f = open("test.txt");
d = json.load(f);
for i in d:
    print(i);

My output:

Sections

That is all I'm getting. I would like to end up with a list of "Articles" and their properties. I've tried looking at the official Python documentation but I found it to be a little vague.

Thanks

carl · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-03 08:24:36Z

5

In your for i in d loop, you are looping over the keys of a dictionary. The dictionary only contains one top level key, namely 'Sections', which is why you see only that output.

I do not fully understand the structure of your JSON, but it appears you want something like this:

for aritcle in d['Sections']['Section'][0]['Article']:
      print article

That will print all the articles out.

answered Feb 3, 2011 at 8:24

carl

50.7k17 gold badges76 silver badges83 bronze badges

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

4 Comments

Pepe Over a year ago

Wow! Thanks for the prompt answer! This solved my problem! I am still starting out with Python and I don't fully understand the dict structure yet. Thanks again !

carl Over a year ago

No problem - another neat trick is that most (all?) JSON is also valid Python code. You can directly copy and paste JSON into the Python interpreter. This is nice for experimentation. When it comes to the application, though, best to stick with the json module.

Johannes Charra Over a year ago

Not all JSON code is valid Python, but much of it. For instance, JSON maps the boolean values True/False to true/false and Python's None to null. After all, it's "Javascript object notation". :)

carl Over a year ago

@jellybean, ah, good point, I knew I would forget something like that :)

Kissaki · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-03 08:26:16Z

0

In your JSON data Sections is the outer-most data and occurs only once. Thus the output is also the expected output, as json.load will parse the list into a python object.

You can access the sections members by doing a for-loop for Sections, then for each section another for loop to get each article.

answered Feb 3, 2011 at 8:26

Kissaki

9,3355 gold badges43 silver badges46 bronze badges

Comments

lprsd · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-03 08:32:56Z

0

It should either be:

for i in d.items():
    print(i);

or be:

for k,v in d.items():
    print k, v

where you take the key and value into separate variables.

d is a python dictionary and you have to iterate over its keys and values.

answered Feb 3, 2011 at 8:32

lprsd

87.9k48 gold badges140 silver badges169 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Trouble reading JSON object in Python

3 Answers 3

4 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

4 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related