JSON

Python's built-in json module converts between JSON text and Python objects. No install required.

JSON	Python
object	`dict`
array	`list`
string	`str`
number	`int` / `float`
`true` / `false`	`True` / `False`
`null`	`None`

python

import json

Parse (decode) JSON → Python

python

# From a string
data = json.loads('{"name": "Jack", "age": 26, "admin": false}')
print(data["name"])            # Jack

# From a file
with open("data.json") as f:
    data = json.load(f)

Serialize (encode) Python → JSON

python

obj = {"name": "Jack", "age": 26, "tags": ["a", "b"]}

# To a string
text = json.dumps(obj)
# Pretty-printed and key-sorted
text = json.dumps(obj, indent=2, sort_keys=True)

# To a file
with open("data.json", "w") as f:
    json.dump(obj, f, indent=2)

Handling missing keys

python

# .get() avoids a KeyError, returns a default instead
email = data.get("email", "not provided")

Non-serializable values

python

# Objects like datetime aren't JSON-serializable by default.
# Pass default= to convert them, or str for a quick fix.
import datetime
json.dumps({"now": datetime.datetime.now()}, default=str)

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