cpython/Doc/library/json.rst

397 lines
15 KiB
ReStructuredText
Raw Normal View History

:mod:`json` --- JSON encoder and decoder
========================================
.. module:: json
:synopsis: Encode and decode the JSON format.
.. moduleauthor:: Bob Ippolito <bob@redivi.com>
.. sectionauthor:: Bob Ippolito <bob@redivi.com>
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) <http://json.org> 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::
2009-01-03 17:18:54 -04:00
>>> 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('\u1234'))
"\u1234"
>>> print(json.dumps('\\'))
"\\"
>>> print(json.dumps({"c": 0, "b": 0, "a": 0}, sort_keys=True))
{"a": 0, "b": 0, "c": 0}
>>> from io 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))
{
2009-01-03 17:18:54 -04:00
"4": 5,
"6": 7
}
Decoding JSON::
2009-01-03 17:18:54 -04:00
>>> import json
>>> json.loads('["foo", {"bar":["baz", null, 1.0, 2]}]')
['foo', {'bar': ['baz', None, 1.0, 2]}]
>>> json.loads('"\\"foo\\bar"')
'"foo\x08ar'
>>> from io import StringIO
>>> io = StringIO('["streaming API"]')
>>> json.load(io)
['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`::
2009-01-03 17:18:54 -04:00
>>> 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', ']']
2009-01-03 17:18:54 -04:00
.. highlight:: none
Using json.tool from the shell to validate and pretty-print::
2009-01-03 17:18:54 -04:00
$ 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
2009-01-03 17:18:54 -04:00
.. 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`.
Merged revisions 68116-68119,68121,68123-68127 via svnmerge from svn+ssh://pythondev@svn.python.org/python/trunk ........ r68116 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 05:46:51 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4100: note that element children are not necessarily present on "start" events. ........ r68117 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 05:53:55 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4156: make clear that "protocol" is to be replaced with the protocol name. ........ r68118 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 06:00:19 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4185: clarify escape behavior of replacement strings. ........ r68119 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 06:09:40 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 3 lines #4222: document dis.findlabels() and dis.findlinestarts() and put them into dis.__all__. ........ r68121 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 06:43:33 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines Point to types module in new module deprecation notice. ........ r68123 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 06:52:29 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4784: ... on three counts ... ........ r68124 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 06:53:19 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4782: Fix markup error that hid load() and loads(). ........ r68125 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 07:02:09 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4776: add data_files and package_dir arguments. ........ r68126 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 07:05:13 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines Handlers are in the `logging.handlers` module. ........ r68127 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 07:14:49 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4767: Use correct submodules for all MIME classes. ........
2009-01-01 11:05:06 -04:00
.. 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.
Merged revisions 68116-68119,68121,68123-68127 via svnmerge from svn+ssh://pythondev@svn.python.org/python/trunk ........ r68116 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 05:46:51 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4100: note that element children are not necessarily present on "start" events. ........ r68117 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 05:53:55 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4156: make clear that "protocol" is to be replaced with the protocol name. ........ r68118 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 06:00:19 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4185: clarify escape behavior of replacement strings. ........ r68119 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 06:09:40 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 3 lines #4222: document dis.findlabels() and dis.findlinestarts() and put them into dis.__all__. ........ r68121 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 06:43:33 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines Point to types module in new module deprecation notice. ........ r68123 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 06:52:29 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4784: ... on three counts ... ........ r68124 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 06:53:19 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4782: Fix markup error that hid load() and loads(). ........ r68125 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 07:02:09 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4776: add data_files and package_dir arguments. ........ r68126 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 07:05:13 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines Handlers are in the `logging.handlers` module. ........ r68127 | georg.brandl | 2009-01-01 07:14:49 -0600 (Thu, 01 Jan 2009) | 2 lines #4767: Use correct submodules for all MIME classes. ........
2009-01-01 11:05:06 -04:00
.. 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::
2009-01-03 17:18:54 -04:00
def default(self, o):
try:
Devil merge! Merged revisions 66561,66564,66580,66610,66614,66618,66624-66625,66628-66629,66643,66645,66660-66665 via svnmerge from svn+ssh://pythondev@svn.python.org/python/trunk ........ r66561 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-22 17:13:29 -0500 (Mon, 22 Sep 2008) | 1 line clean up docs for platform's linux_distribution and dist functions ........ r66564 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-23 08:32:46 -0500 (Tue, 23 Sep 2008) | 1 line mention how to override boolean evaluation ........ r66580 | georg.brandl | 2008-09-24 04:47:55 -0500 (Wed, 24 Sep 2008) | 2 lines Indentation normalization. ........ r66610 | andrew.kuchling | 2008-09-24 12:27:55 -0500 (Wed, 24 Sep 2008) | 1 line Improve wording ........ r66614 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-24 17:11:59 -0500 (Wed, 24 Sep 2008) | 4 lines #3950 fix missing scale factors in turtle.py reviewers: Georg, Benjamin ........ r66618 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-25 15:35:45 -0500 (Thu, 25 Sep 2008) | 1 line add a NEWs entry for r66614 ........ r66624 | raymond.hettinger | 2008-09-25 18:31:52 -0500 (Thu, 25 Sep 2008) | 1 line Fix namedtuple bug reported by Glenn Linderman. Template did not form correctly if the field names were input in Unicode. ........ r66625 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-25 21:58:36 -0500 (Thu, 25 Sep 2008) | 1 line add the beginnings of a C-API 2 -> 3 porting guide ........ r66628 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-26 15:52:06 -0500 (Fri, 26 Sep 2008) | 1 line add an 'other options' section ........ r66629 | georg.brandl | 2008-09-26 16:15:21 -0500 (Fri, 26 Sep 2008) | 2 lines typos. ........ r66643 | andrew.kuchling | 2008-09-27 09:12:33 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line Add a last bunch of items ........ r66645 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-27 11:23:55 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line 2to3's api should be considered unstable ........ r66660 | andrew.kuchling | 2008-09-27 17:54:08 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line #3510: future-proof text ........ r66661 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-27 18:28:43 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line clarify a few things ........ r66662 | andrew.kuchling | 2008-09-27 19:15:27 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line #1579477: mention necessity to flush output before exec'ing ........ r66663 | andrew.kuchling | 2008-09-27 20:08:47 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line #1415508: Document two functions ........ r66664 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-27 20:51:36 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line better grammar ........ r66665 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-27 20:53:29 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line note the 2to3 -d could be useful for other refactoring ........
2008-09-27 23:06:32 -03:00
iterable = iter(o)
except TypeError:
Devil merge! Merged revisions 66561,66564,66580,66610,66614,66618,66624-66625,66628-66629,66643,66645,66660-66665 via svnmerge from svn+ssh://pythondev@svn.python.org/python/trunk ........ r66561 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-22 17:13:29 -0500 (Mon, 22 Sep 2008) | 1 line clean up docs for platform's linux_distribution and dist functions ........ r66564 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-23 08:32:46 -0500 (Tue, 23 Sep 2008) | 1 line mention how to override boolean evaluation ........ r66580 | georg.brandl | 2008-09-24 04:47:55 -0500 (Wed, 24 Sep 2008) | 2 lines Indentation normalization. ........ r66610 | andrew.kuchling | 2008-09-24 12:27:55 -0500 (Wed, 24 Sep 2008) | 1 line Improve wording ........ r66614 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-24 17:11:59 -0500 (Wed, 24 Sep 2008) | 4 lines #3950 fix missing scale factors in turtle.py reviewers: Georg, Benjamin ........ r66618 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-25 15:35:45 -0500 (Thu, 25 Sep 2008) | 1 line add a NEWs entry for r66614 ........ r66624 | raymond.hettinger | 2008-09-25 18:31:52 -0500 (Thu, 25 Sep 2008) | 1 line Fix namedtuple bug reported by Glenn Linderman. Template did not form correctly if the field names were input in Unicode. ........ r66625 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-25 21:58:36 -0500 (Thu, 25 Sep 2008) | 1 line add the beginnings of a C-API 2 -> 3 porting guide ........ r66628 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-26 15:52:06 -0500 (Fri, 26 Sep 2008) | 1 line add an 'other options' section ........ r66629 | georg.brandl | 2008-09-26 16:15:21 -0500 (Fri, 26 Sep 2008) | 2 lines typos. ........ r66643 | andrew.kuchling | 2008-09-27 09:12:33 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line Add a last bunch of items ........ r66645 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-27 11:23:55 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line 2to3's api should be considered unstable ........ r66660 | andrew.kuchling | 2008-09-27 17:54:08 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line #3510: future-proof text ........ r66661 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-27 18:28:43 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line clarify a few things ........ r66662 | andrew.kuchling | 2008-09-27 19:15:27 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line #1579477: mention necessity to flush output before exec'ing ........ r66663 | andrew.kuchling | 2008-09-27 20:08:47 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line #1415508: Document two functions ........ r66664 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-27 20:51:36 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line better grammar ........ r66665 | benjamin.peterson | 2008-09-27 20:53:29 -0500 (Sat, 27 Sep 2008) | 1 line note the 2to3 -d could be useful for other refactoring ........
2008-09-27 23:06:32 -03:00
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::
2009-01-03 17:18:54 -04:00
for chunk in JSONEncoder().iterencode(bigobject):
mysocket.write(chunk)