Why can't Python parse this JSON data?

Question

I have this JSON in a file:

{
    \"maps\": [
        {
            \"id\": \"blabla\",
            \"iscategorical\         


        

Answer 1

Your data.json should look like this:

{
 "maps":[
         {"id":"blabla","iscategorical":"0"},
         {"id":"blabla","iscategorical":"0"}
        ],
"masks":
         {"id":"valore"},
"om_points":"value",
"parameters":
         {"id":"valore"}
}

Your code should be:

import json
from pprint import pprint

with open('data.json') as data_file:    
    data = json.load(data_file)
pprint(data)

Note that this only works in Python 2.6 and up, as it depends upon the with-statement. In Python 2.5 use from __future__ import with_statement, in Python <= 2.4, see Justin Peel's answer, which this answer is based upon.

You can now also access single values like this:

data["maps"][0]["id"]  # will return 'blabla'
data["masks"]["id"]    # will return 'valore'
data["om_points"]      # will return 'value'

Answer 2

Justin Peel's answer is really helpful, but if you are using Python 3 reading JSON should be done like this:

with open('data.json', encoding='utf-8') as data_file:
    data = json.loads(data_file.read())

Note: use json.loads instead of json.load. In Python 3, json.loads takes a string parameter. json.load takes a file-like object parameter. data_file.read() returns a string object.

To be honest, I don't think it's a problem to load all json data into memory most cases.

Answer 3

data = []
with codecs.open('d:\output.txt','rU','utf-8') as f:
    for line in f:
       data.append(json.loads(line))

Answer 4

As a python3 user,

The difference between load and loads methods is important especially when you read json data from file.

As stated in the docs:

json.load:

Deserialize fp (a .read()-supporting text file or binary file containing a JSON document) to a Python object using this conversion table.

json.loads:

json.loads: Deserialize s (a str, bytes or bytearray instance containing a JSON document) to a Python object using this conversion table.

json.load method can directly read opened json document since it is able to read binary file.

with open('./recipes.json') as data:
  all_recipes = json.load(data)

As a result, your json data available as in a format specified according to this conversion table:

https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/json.html#json-to-py-table

Answer 5

Here you go with modified data.json file:

{
    "maps": [
        {
            "id": "blabla",
            "iscategorical": "0"
        },
        {
            "id": "blabla",
            "iscategorical": "0"
        }
    ],
    "masks": [{
        "id": "valore"
    }],
    "om_points": "value",
    "parameters": [{
        "id": "valore"
    }]
}

You can call or print data on console by using below lines:

import json
from pprint import pprint
with open('data.json') as data_file:
    data_item = json.load(data_file)
pprint(data_item)

Expected output for print(data_item['parameters'][0]['id']):

{'maps': [{'id': 'blabla', 'iscategorical': '0'},
          {'id': 'blabla', 'iscategorical': '0'}],
 'masks': [{'id': 'valore'}],
 'om_points': 'value',
 'parameters': [{'id': 'valore'}]}

Expected output for print(data_item['parameters'][0]['id']):

valore

Answer 6

If you're using Python3, you can try changing your (connection.json file) JSON to:

{
  "connection1": {
    "DSN": "con1",
    "UID": "abc",
    "PWD": "1234",
    "connection_string_python":"test1"
  }
  ,
  "connection2": {
    "DSN": "con2",
    "UID": "def",
    "PWD": "1234"
  }
}

Then using the following code:

connection_file = open('connection.json', 'r')
conn_string = json.load(connection_file)
conn_string['connection1']['connection_string_python'])
connection_file.close()
>>> test1