:mod:`json` --- JSON encoder and decoder ======================================== .. module:: json :synopsis: Encode and decode the JSON format. .. moduleauthor:: Bob Ippolito .. sectionauthor:: Bob Ippolito .. versionadded:: 2.6 JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a subset of JavaScript syntax (ECMA-262 3rd edition) used as a lightweight data interchange format. :mod:`json` exposes an API familiar to users of the standard library :mod:`marshal` and :mod:`pickle` modules. Encoding basic Python object hierarchies:: >>> import json >>> json.dumps(['foo', {'bar': ('baz', None, 1.0, 2)}]) '["foo", {"bar": ["baz", null, 1.0, 2]}]' >>> print json.dumps("\"foo\bar") "\"foo\bar" >>> print json.dumps(u'\u1234') "\u1234" >>> print json.dumps('\\') "\\" >>> print json.dumps({"c": 0, "b": 0, "a": 0}, sort_keys=True) {"a": 0, "b": 0, "c": 0} >>> from StringIO import StringIO >>> io = StringIO() >>> json.dump(['streaming API'], io) >>> io.getvalue() '["streaming API"]' Compact encoding:: >>> import json >>> json.dumps([1,2,3,{'4': 5, '6': 7}], separators=(',',':')) '[1,2,3,{"4":5,"6":7}]' Pretty printing:: >>> import json >>> print json.dumps({'4': 5, '6': 7}, sort_keys=True, indent=4) { "4": 5, "6": 7 } Decoding JSON:: >>> import json >>> json.loads('["foo", {"bar":["baz", null, 1.0, 2]}]') [u'foo', {u'bar': [u'baz', None, 1.0, 2]}] >>> json.loads('"\\"foo\\bar"') u'"foo\x08ar' >>> from StringIO import StringIO >>> io = StringIO('["streaming API"]') >>> json.load(io) [u'streaming API'] Specializing JSON object decoding:: >>> import json >>> def as_complex(dct): ... if '__complex__' in dct: ... return complex(dct['real'], dct['imag']) ... return dct ... >>> json.loads('{"__complex__": true, "real": 1, "imag": 2}', ... object_hook=as_complex) (1+2j) >>> import decimal >>> json.loads('1.1', parse_float=decimal.Decimal) Decimal('1.1') Extending :class:`JSONEncoder`:: >>> import json >>> class ComplexEncoder(json.JSONEncoder): ... def default(self, obj): ... if isinstance(obj, complex): ... return [obj.real, obj.imag] ... return json.JSONEncoder.default(self, obj) ... >>> dumps(2 + 1j, cls=ComplexEncoder) '[2.0, 1.0]' >>> ComplexEncoder().encode(2 + 1j) '[2.0, 1.0]' >>> list(ComplexEncoder().iterencode(2 + 1j)) ['[', '2.0', ', ', '1.0', ']'] .. highlight:: none Using json.tool from the shell to validate and pretty-print:: $ echo '{"json":"obj"}' | python -mjson.tool { "json": "obj" } $ echo '{ 1.2:3.4}' | python -mjson.tool Expecting property name: line 1 column 2 (char 2) .. highlight:: python .. note:: The JSON produced by this module's default settings is a subset of YAML, so it may be used as a serializer for that as well. Basic Usage ----------- .. function:: dump(obj, fp[, skipkeys[, ensure_ascii[, check_circular[, allow_nan[, cls[, indent[, separators[, encoding[, default[, **kw]]]]]]]]]]) Serialize *obj* as a JSON formatted stream to *fp* (a ``.write()``-supporting file-like object). If *skipkeys* is ``True`` (default: ``False``), then dict keys that are not of a basic type (:class:`str`, :class:`unicode`, :class:`int`, :class:`long`, :class:`float`, :class:`bool`, ``None``) will be skipped instead of raising a :exc:`TypeError`. If *ensure_ascii* is ``False`` (default: ``True``), then some chunks written to *fp* may be :class:`unicode` instances, subject to normal Python :class:`str` to :class:`unicode` coercion rules. Unless ``fp.write()`` explicitly understands :class:`unicode` (as in :func:`codecs.getwriter`) this is likely to cause an error. If *check_circular* is ``False`` (default: ``True``), then the circular reference check for container types will be skipped and a circular reference will result in an :exc:`OverflowError` (or worse). If *allow_nan* is ``False`` (default: ``True``), then it will be a :exc:`ValueError` to serialize out of range :class:`float` values (``nan``, ``inf``, ``-inf``) in strict compliance of the JSON specification, instead of using the JavaScript equivalents (``NaN``, ``Infinity``, ``-Infinity``). If *indent* is a non-negative integer, then JSON array elements and object members will be pretty-printed with that indent level. An indent level of 0 will only insert newlines. ``None`` (the default) selects the most compact representation. If *separators* is an ``(item_separator, dict_separator)`` tuple, then it will be used instead of the default ``(', ', ': ')`` separators. ``(',', ':')`` is the most compact JSON representation. *encoding* is the character encoding for str instances, default is UTF-8. *default(obj)* is a function that should return a serializable version of *obj* or raise :exc:`TypeError`. The default simply raises :exc:`TypeError`. To use a custom :class:`JSONEncoder`` subclass (e.g. one that overrides the :meth:`default` method to serialize additional types), specify it with the *cls* kwarg. .. function:: dumps(obj[, skipkeys[, ensure_ascii[, check_circular[, allow_nan[, cls[, indent[, separators[, encoding[, default[, **kw]]]]]]]]]]) Serialize *obj* to a JSON formatted :class:`str`. If *ensure_ascii* is ``False``, then the return value will be a :class:`unicode` instance. The other arguments have the same meaning as in :func:`dump`. .. function:: load(fp[, encoding[, cls[, object_hook[, parse_float[, parse_int[, parse_constant[, **kw]]]]]]]) Deserialize *fp* (a ``.read()``-supporting file-like object containing a JSON document) to a Python object. If the contents of *fp* are encoded with an ASCII based encoding other than UTF-8 (e.g. latin-1), then an appropriate *encoding* name must be specified. Encodings that are not ASCII based (such as UCS-2) are not allowed, and should be wrapped with ``codecs.getreader(fp)(encoding)``, or simply decoded to a :class:`unicode` object and passed to :func:`loads`. *object_hook* is an optional function that will be called with the result of any object literal decode (a :class:`dict`). The return value of *object_hook* will be used instead of the :class:`dict`. This feature can be used to implement custom decoders (e.g. JSON-RPC class hinting). *parse_float*, if specified, will be called with the string of every JSON float to be decoded. By default, this is equivalent to ``float(num_str)``. This can be used to use another datatype or parser for JSON floats (e.g. :class:`decimal.Decimal`). *parse_int*, if specified, will be called with the string of every JSON int to be decoded. By default, this is equivalent to ``int(num_str)``. This can be used to use another datatype or parser for JSON integers (e.g. :class:`float`). *parse_constant*, if specified, will be called with one of the following strings: ``'-Infinity'``, ``'Infinity'``, ``'NaN'``, ``'null'``, ``'true'``, ``'false'``. This can be used to raise an exception if invalid JSON numbers are encountered. To use a custom :class:`JSONDecoder` subclass, specify it with the ``cls`` kwarg. Additional keyword arguments will be passed to the constructor of the class. .. function:: loads(s[, encoding[, cls[, object_hook[, parse_float[, parse_int[, parse_constant[, **kw]]]]]]]) Deserialize *s* (a :class:`str` or :class:`unicode` instance containing a JSON document) to a Python object. If *s* is a :class:`str` instance and is encoded with an ASCII based encoding other than UTF-8 (e.g. latin-1), then an appropriate *encoding* name must be specified. Encodings that are not ASCII based (such as UCS-2) are not allowed and should be decoded to :class:`unicode` first. The other arguments have the same meaning as in :func:`dump`. Encoders and decoders --------------------- .. class:: JSONDecoder([encoding[, object_hook[, parse_float[, parse_int[, parse_constant[, strict]]]]]]) Simple JSON decoder. Performs the following translations in decoding by default: +---------------+-------------------+ | JSON | Python | +===============+===================+ | object | dict | +---------------+-------------------+ | array | list | +---------------+-------------------+ | string | unicode | +---------------+-------------------+ | number (int) | int, long | +---------------+-------------------+ | number (real) | float | +---------------+-------------------+ | true | True | +---------------+-------------------+ | false | False | +---------------+-------------------+ | null | None | +---------------+-------------------+ It also understands ``NaN``, ``Infinity``, and ``-Infinity`` as their corresponding ``float`` values, which is outside the JSON spec. *encoding* determines the encoding used to interpret any :class:`str` objects decoded by this instance (UTF-8 by default). It has no effect when decoding :class:`unicode` objects. Note that currently only encodings that are a superset of ASCII work, strings of other encodings should be passed in as :class:`unicode`. *object_hook*, if specified, will be called with the result of every JSON object decoded and its return value will be used in place of the given :class:`dict`. This can be used to provide custom deserializations (e.g. to support JSON-RPC class hinting). *parse_float*, if specified, will be called with the string of every JSON float to be decoded. By default, this is equivalent to ``float(num_str)``. This can be used to use another datatype or parser for JSON floats (e.g. :class:`decimal.Decimal`). *parse_int*, if specified, will be called with the string of every JSON int to be decoded. By default, this is equivalent to ``int(num_str)``. This can be used to use another datatype or parser for JSON integers (e.g. :class:`float`). *parse_constant*, if specified, will be called with one of the following strings: ``'-Infinity'``, ``'Infinity'``, ``'NaN'``, ``'null'``, ``'true'``, ``'false'``. This can be used to raise an exception if invalid JSON numbers are encountered. .. method:: decode(s) Return the Python representation of *s* (a :class:`str` or :class:`unicode` instance containing a JSON document) .. method:: raw_decode(s) Decode a JSON document from *s* (a :class:`str` or :class:`unicode` beginning with a JSON document) and return a 2-tuple of the Python representation and the index in *s* where the document ended. This can be used to decode a JSON document from a string that may have extraneous data at the end. .. class:: JSONEncoder([skipkeys[, ensure_ascii[, check_circular[, allow_nan[, sort_keys[, indent[, separators[, encoding[, default]]]]]]]]]) Extensible JSON encoder for Python data structures. Supports the following objects and types by default: +-------------------+---------------+ | Python | JSON | +===================+===============+ | dict | object | +-------------------+---------------+ | list, tuple | array | +-------------------+---------------+ | str, unicode | string | +-------------------+---------------+ | int, long, float | number | +-------------------+---------------+ | True | true | +-------------------+---------------+ | False | false | +-------------------+---------------+ | None | null | +-------------------+---------------+ To extend this to recognize other objects, subclass and implement a :meth:`default` method with another method that returns a serializable object for ``o`` if possible, otherwise it should call the superclass implementation (to raise :exc:`TypeError`). If *skipkeys* is ``False`` (the default), then it is a :exc:`TypeError` to attempt encoding of keys that are not str, int, long, float or None. If *skipkeys* is ``True``, such items are simply skipped. If *ensure_ascii* is ``True`` (the default), the output is guaranteed to be :class:`str` objects with all incoming unicode characters escaped. If *ensure_ascii* is ``False``, the output will be a unicode object. If *check_circular* is ``True`` (the default), then lists, dicts, and custom encoded objects will be checked for circular references during encoding to prevent an infinite recursion (which would cause an :exc:`OverflowError`). Otherwise, no such check takes place. If *allow_nan* is ``True`` (the default), then ``NaN``, ``Infinity``, and ``-Infinity`` will be encoded as such. This behavior is not JSON specification compliant, but is consistent with most JavaScript based encoders and decoders. Otherwise, it will be a :exc:`ValueError` to encode such floats. If *sort_keys* is ``True`` (the default), then the output of dictionaries will be sorted by key; this is useful for regression tests to ensure that JSON serializations can be compared on a day-to-day basis. If *indent* is a non-negative integer (it is ``None`` by default), then JSON array elements and object members will be pretty-printed with that indent level. An indent level of 0 will only insert newlines. ``None`` is the most compact representation. If specified, *separators* should be an ``(item_separator, key_separator)`` tuple. The default is ``(', ', ': ')``. To get the most compact JSON representation, you should specify ``(',', ':')`` to eliminate whitespace. If specified, *default* is a function that gets called for objects that can't otherwise be serialized. It should return a JSON encodable version of the object or raise a :exc:`TypeError`. If *encoding* is not ``None``, then all input strings will be transformed into unicode using that encoding prior to JSON-encoding. The default is UTF-8. .. method:: default(o) Implement this method in a subclass such that it returns a serializable object for *o*, or calls the base implementation (to raise a :exc:`TypeError`). For example, to support arbitrary iterators, you could implement default like this:: def default(self, o): try: iterable = iter(o) except TypeError: pass else: return list(iterable) return JSONEncoder.default(self, o) .. method:: encode(o) Return a JSON string representation of a Python data structure, *o*. For example:: >>> JSONEncoder().encode({"foo": ["bar", "baz"]}) '{"foo": ["bar", "baz"]}' .. method:: iterencode(o) Encode the given object, *o*, and yield each string representation as available. For example:: for chunk in JSONEncoder().iterencode(bigobject): mysocket.write(chunk)