Python convert Json string values to int float boolean

Question

Objective: I am coming from javascript background. I am try to parse a json. json.loads is supposed to convert stringfied values into their relevant type.

How can it be done with python 3? Purpose is eval all values with relevant type.

Scenerio: I am reading csv in python when reading csv, values are converted to strings I removed csv code becuase it was not relevant !!!

Code:

import json
x = '{ "name":"John", "age":30, "dev":"true", "trig":"1.0E-10", "res":"0.1"}'
y = json.loads(x)
print(y)

Current Output:

{
  "name": "John",
  "age": "30", 
  "dev": "true", 
  "trig": "1.0E-10", 
  "res": "0.1"
}

Expected output:

{
  "name": "John",
  "age": 30,       // int 
  "dev": true,     //  bool
  "trig": 1.0E-10, // real number
  "res": 0.1       // float
}

In your JSON input you have quotes around true and 1.0E-10 and 0.1. That makes them strings. It would be the same if you were loading the same JSON in JavaScript. — khelwood
– khelwood, Commented Apr 15, 2019 at 10:25
No , they are evaluated BTW. But consider i am reading csv and i want values to be converted. — django
– django, Commented Apr 15, 2019 at 10:26

Filip Młynarski · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-15 10:31:42Z

3

First you need to load your json from file

file = open('data.json', 'r')
content = file.read()
file.close()

Then we can go over each value and check whether we can convert it to int or float or if its either 'true' or 'false', if so we update specific value of our dictionary.

import json

loaded_json = json.loads(content)

def is_type(x, t):
    try:
        t(x)
        return True
    except:
        return False

for k, v in loaded_json.items():
    if is_type(v, int):
        loaded_json[k] = int(v)
    elif is_type(v, float):
        loaded_json[k] = float(v)
    elif v == 'true':
        loaded_json[k] = True
    elif v == 'false':
        loaded_json[k] = False

for k, v in sorted(loaded_json.items()):
    print(k, v, '//', type(v))

Output:

age 30 // <class 'int'>
dev True // <class 'bool'>
name John // <class 'str'>
res 0.1 // <class 'float'>
trig 1e-10 // <class 'float'>

answered Apr 15, 2019 at 10:31

Filip Młynarski

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2 Comments

django Over a year ago

Thankx , I have 2 questions, How can i do it with json_loads hook 2nd - should json_loads not suport it by defualt, how can i use parse_int option mentioned in docs

Filip Młynarski Over a year ago

Since your values are in quotation marks " they are being interpreted as strings, if your values wouldn't have them they would be loaded as their corresponding types. I never used object_hook or parse_int arguments.

thebjorn · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-15 10:49:15Z

2

Your fundamental problem is that your json data contains strings, not values (e.g. "dev":"true" instead of "dev":true). Parsing the string in javascript will hit the same problems you're seeing in Python:

(dev) go|c:\srv\tmp> node
> x = '{ "name":"John", "age":30, "dev":"true", "trig":"1.0E-10", "res":"0.1"}'
'{ "name":"John", "age":30, "dev":"true", "trig":"1.0E-10", "res":"0.1"}'
> JSON.parse(x)
{ name: 'John', age: 30, dev: 'true', trig: '1.0E-10', res: '0.1' }
> JSON.parse(x).dev
'true'
> typeof JSON.parse(x).dev
'string'

The real solution here is to fix whatever is creating such malformed json.

You can hack your way around it in Python by e.g.:

import ast, json

x = '{ "name":"John", "age":30, "dev":"true", "trig":"1.0E-10", "res":"0.1"}'

def evalfn(pairs):
    res = {}
    for key, val in pairs:
        if val in {'true','false'}:
            res[key] = val == 'true'
            continue
        try:
            res[key] = ast.literal_eval(val)
        except Exception as e:
            res[key] = val
    return res

y = json.loads(x, object_pairs_hook=evalfn)
print y

which will print

{u'trig': 1e-10, u'res': 0.1, u'age': 30, u'name': u'John', u'dev': True}

answered Apr 15, 2019 at 10:49

thebjorn

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3 Comments

django Over a year ago

Thankx. It works. But what should be standard practive when reading csv files , as csv reader converts every value to string

thebjorn Over a year ago

That sounds like something you should ask in a new question, but normally you'll know the data types for each column when you're parsing csv by hand (it's still a very manual process). All the "cool kids" seem to be using pandas for such things these days though, and it has a much more sophisticated csv parser (pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/reference/api/…)

django Over a year ago

Thankx yes i know a bit about pandas, but i was more curious about vanilla way. Your solution is very helpful. Much appreciated

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