python: json.dumps can't handle utf-8?

Question

Below is the test program, including a Chinese character:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import json

j = {\"d\":\"中\", \"e\":\"a\"}
json = json.dumps(j, encoding=\         


        

Answer 1

You should read json.org. The complete JSON specification is in the white box on the right.

There is nothing wrong with the generated JSON. Generators are allowed to genereate either UTF-8 strings or plain ASCII strings, where characters are escaped with the \uXXXX notation. In your case, the Python json module decided for escaping, and 中 has the escaped notation \u4e2d.

By the way: Any conforming JSON interpreter will correctly unescape this sequence again and give you back the actual character.