Python JSON Tutorial
In recent times, JSON is preferred syntax for storing and exchanging data between applications.
In Python programming, you can use json package to work with JSON strings. In this tutorial, we will learn how to use json Python package and work with JSON data.
Import JSON
json package comes inbuilt with Python. So, all you have to do to use json package is, import at the start of your program.
To import json into your Python program, use the following import statement.
import jsonTry Online
Parse JSON String and Access Elements
Consider the following JSON String.
{"rollno":25, "name":"Raghu", "class":7, "section":"B"} Try Online We will parse this JSON string using loads() function of json module. And we shall print the individual elements of the JSON object.
example.py – Python Program
import json
#json string
jsonStr = '{"rollno":25, "name":"Raghu", "class":7, "section":"B"}'
#parse/load json string into json object
jsonObj = json.loads(jsonStr)
#access
print(jsonObj["rollno"])
print(jsonObj["name"])
print(jsonObj["class"])
print(jsonObj["section"]) Try Online Output
25 Raghu 7 B
As you can observe, once the JSON string is parsed to an object jsonObj, you can access the individual elements with key used as index.
For example, jsonObj["rollno"] returns the value for the key rollno in jsonObj.
Python JSON – Access Inner Nodes
You can access inner nodes in the same way as that you access elements in multi-dimensional array.
In this example, we take a JSON string, in which one of the element marks has elements in it {"science":87, "maths":34}.
example.py – Python Program
import json
#json string
jsonStr = '{"rollno":25, "name":"Raghu", "marks":{"science":87, "maths":34}}'
#parse/load json string into json object
jsonObj = json.loads(jsonStr)
#access inner nodes
print(jsonObj["marks"]["science"]) Try Online Output
87
Parse JSON Array
You can parse a JSON array and access the elements using index. The index starts from 0 and increments for the subsequent elements as in a list.
In the following example, we have an array of two elements. We shall parse the JSON array using the same loads() function, and then access the array elements using index.
example.py – Python Program
import json
#json string
jsonStr = '[{"rollno":1, "name":"Prasanth"}, {"rollno":2, "name":"Raghu"}]'
#parse/load json string into json object
jsonObj = json.loads(jsonStr)
#access the json array
print(jsonObj[0])
print(jsonObj[1]) Try Online Output
{'rollno': 1, 'name': 'Prasanth'}
{'rollno': 2, 'name': 'Raghu'} Convert Python Objects to JSON
You can convert some of the types of Python Objects to JSON. Using this, you can save python objects directly to files in persistent storage. Or you can transmit them to other applications as JSON string, which is a good thing, because most of the applications are embracing JSON syntax for data transfer between the applications.
We can convert following Python objects to JSON String.
- Dictionary
- List
- Tuple
- String
- Integer
- Float
- Boolean
- None
In the following example, we shall convert some of the Python objects to JSON String.
example.py – Python Program
import json
#list to json string
alist = [12, 57, 41, 68, 47, 62]
jsonList = json.dumps(alist)
print(jsonList)
#tuple to json string
atuple = (12, "Raghu")
jsonTuple = json.dumps(atuple)
print(jsonTuple)
#dictionary to json string
aDict = {"rollno":12, "name":"Raghu"}
jsonDict = json.dumps(aDict)
print(jsonDict)
#string to json
str = "Hello World"
jsonStr = json.dumps(str)
print(jsonStr)
#int to json
i = 25
jsonInt = json.dumps(i)
print(jsonInt)
#float to json
f = 25.256
jsonFloat = json.dumps(f)
print(jsonFloat)
#boolean to json
bool = True
jsonBool = json.dumps(bool)
print(jsonBool)
#null to json
a = None
jsonNone = json.dumps(a)
print(jsonNone) Try Online Output
[12, 57, 41, 68, 47, 62]
[12, "Raghu"]
{"rollno": 12, "name": "Raghu"}
"Hello World"
25
25.256
true
null Conclusion
In this Python Tutorial, we learned how to parse JSON formatted string, convert some of the Python objects to JSON string and vice versa.