Python 2.6 JSON decoding performance

Question

I\'m using the json module in Python 2.6 to load and decode JSON files. However I\'m currently getting slower than expected performance. I\'m using a test case

Answer 1

It may vary by platform, but the builtin json module is based on simplejson, not including the C speedups. I've found simplejson to be as a fast as python-cjson anyway, so I prefer it since it obviously has the same interface as the builtin.

try:
    import simplejson as json
except ImportError:
    import json

Seems to me that's the best idiom for awhile, yielding the performance when available while being forwards-compatible.