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Package json

source code

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. It is the externally maintained version of the :mod:`json` library contained in Python 2.6, but maintains compatibility with Python 2.4 and Python 2.5 and (currently) has significant performance advantages, even without using the optional C extension for speedups.

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
   >>> s = json.dumps({'4': 5, '6': 7}, sort_keys=True, indent=4)
   >>> print '\n'.join([l.rstrip() for l in  s.splitlines()])
   {
       "4": 5,
       "6": 7
   }

Decoding JSON:

   >>> import json
   >>> obj = [u'foo', {u'bar': [u'baz', None, 1.0, 2]}]
   >>> json.loads('["foo", {"bar":["baz", null, 1.0, 2]}]') == obj
   True
   >>> json.loads('"\\"foo\\bar"') == u'"foo\x08ar'
   True
   >>> from StringIO import StringIO
   >>> io = StringIO('["streaming API"]')
   >>> json.load(io)[0] == 'streaming API'
   True

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)
   >>> from decimal import Decimal
   >>> json.loads('1.1', parse_float=Decimal) == Decimal('1.1')
   True

Specializing JSON object encoding:

   >>> import json
   >>> def encode_complex(obj):
   ...     if isinstance(obj, complex):
   ...         return [obj.real, obj.imag]
   ...     raise TypeError(repr(o) + " is not JSON serializable")
   ...
   >>> json.dumps(2 + 1j, default=encode_complex)
   '[2.0, 1.0]'
   >>> json.JSONEncoder(default=encode_complex).encode(2 + 1j)
   '[2.0, 1.0]'
   >>> ''.join(json.JSONEncoder(default=encode_complex).iterencode(2 + 1j))
   '[2.0, 1.0]'

Using json.tool from the shell to validate and pretty-print:

   $ echo '{"json":"obj"}' | python -m json.tool
   {
       "json": "obj"
   }
   $ echo '{ 1.2:3.4}' | python -m json.tool
   Expecting property name: line 1 column 2 (char 2)

Version: 2.0.9

Author: Bob Ippolito <bob@redivi.com>

Classes
  JSONDecoder
Simple JSON <http://json.org> decoder
  JSONEncoder
Extensible JSON <http://json.org> encoder for Python data structures.
Functions
 
dump(obj, fp, skipkeys=False, ensure_ascii=True, check_circular=True, allow_nan=True, cls=None, indent=None, separators=None, encoding='utf-8', default=None, **kw)
Serialize ``obj`` as a JSON formatted stream to ``fp`` (a ``.write()``-supporting file-like object).
source code
 
dumps(obj, skipkeys=False, ensure_ascii=True, check_circular=True, allow_nan=True, cls=None, indent=None, separators=None, encoding='utf-8', default=None, **kw)
Serialize ``obj`` to a JSON formatted ``str``.
source code
 
load(fp, encoding=None, cls=None, object_hook=None, parse_float=None, parse_int=None, parse_constant=None, object_pairs_hook=None, **kw)
Deserialize ``fp`` (a ``.read()``-supporting file-like object containing a JSON document) to a Python object.
source code
 
loads(s, encoding=None, cls=None, object_hook=None, parse_float=None, parse_int=None, parse_constant=None, object_pairs_hook=None, **kw)
Deserialize ``s`` (a ``str`` or ``unicode`` instance containing a JSON document) to a Python object.
source code
Function Details

dump(obj, fp, skipkeys=False, ensure_ascii=True, check_circular=True, allow_nan=True, cls=None, indent=None, separators=None, encoding='utf-8', default=None, **kw)

source code 

Serialize ``obj`` as a JSON formatted stream to ``fp`` (a ``.write()``-supporting file-like object).

If ``skipkeys`` is true then ``dict`` keys that are not basic types (``str``, ``unicode``, ``int``, ``long``, ``float``, ``bool``, ``None``) will be skipped instead of raising a ``TypeError``.

If ``ensure_ascii`` is false, then the some chunks written to ``fp`` may be ``unicode`` instances, subject to normal Python ``str`` to ``unicode`` coercion rules. Unless ``fp.write()`` explicitly understands ``unicode`` (as in ``codecs.getwriter()``) this is likely to cause an error.

If ``check_circular`` is false, then the circular reference check for container types will be skipped and a circular reference will result in an ``OverflowError`` (or worse).

If ``allow_nan`` is false, then it will be a ``ValueError`` to serialize out of range ``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`` is 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 TypeError. The default simply raises TypeError.

To use a custom ``JSONEncoder`` subclass (e.g. one that overrides the ``.default()`` method to serialize additional types), specify it with the ``cls`` kwarg; otherwise ``JSONEncoder`` is used.

dumps(obj, skipkeys=False, ensure_ascii=True, check_circular=True, allow_nan=True, cls=None, indent=None, separators=None, encoding='utf-8', default=None, **kw)

source code 

Serialize ``obj`` to a JSON formatted ``str``.

If ``skipkeys`` is false then ``dict`` keys that are not basic types (``str``, ``unicode``, ``int``, ``long``, ``float``, ``bool``, ``None``) will be skipped instead of raising a ``TypeError``.

If ``ensure_ascii`` is false, then the return value will be a ``unicode`` instance subject to normal Python ``str`` to ``unicode`` coercion rules instead of being escaped to an ASCII ``str``.

If ``check_circular`` is false, then the circular reference check for container types will be skipped and a circular reference will result in an ``OverflowError`` (or worse).

If ``allow_nan`` is false, then it will be a ``ValueError`` to serialize out of range ``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`` is 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 TypeError. The default simply raises TypeError.

To use a custom ``JSONEncoder`` subclass (e.g. one that overrides the ``.default()`` method to serialize additional types), specify it with the ``cls`` kwarg; otherwise ``JSONEncoder`` is used.

load(fp, encoding=None, cls=None, object_hook=None, parse_float=None, parse_int=None, parse_constant=None, object_pairs_hook=None, **kw)

source code 

Deserialize ``fp`` (a ``.read()``-supporting file-like object containing a JSON document) to a Python object.

If the contents of ``fp`` 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 wrapped with ``codecs.getreader(fp)(encoding)``, or simply decoded to a ``unicode`` object and passed to ``loads()``

``object_hook`` is an optional function that will be called with the result of any object literal decode (a ``dict``). The return value of ``object_hook`` will be used instead of the ``dict``. This feature can be used to implement custom decoders (e.g. JSON-RPC class hinting).

``object_pairs_hook`` is an optional function that will be called with the result of any object literal decoded with an ordered list of pairs. The return value of ``object_pairs_hook`` will be used instead of the ``dict``. This feature can be used to implement custom decoders that rely on the order that the key and value pairs are decoded (for example, collections.OrderedDict will remember the order of insertion). If ``object_hook`` is also defined, the ``object_pairs_hook`` takes priority.

To use a custom ``JSONDecoder`` subclass, specify it with the ``cls`` kwarg; otherwise ``JSONDecoder`` is used.

loads(s, encoding=None, cls=None, object_hook=None, parse_float=None, parse_int=None, parse_constant=None, object_pairs_hook=None, **kw)

source code 

Deserialize ``s`` (a ``str`` or ``unicode`` instance containing a JSON document) to a Python object.

If ``s`` is a ``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 ``unicode`` first.

``object_hook`` is an optional function that will be called with the result of any object literal decode (a ``dict``). The return value of ``object_hook`` will be used instead of the ``dict``. This feature can be used to implement custom decoders (e.g. JSON-RPC class hinting).

``object_pairs_hook`` is an optional function that will be called with the result of any object literal decoded with an ordered list of pairs. The return value of ``object_pairs_hook`` will be used instead of the ``dict``. This feature can be used to implement custom decoders that rely on the order that the key and value pairs are decoded (for example, collections.OrderedDict will remember the order of insertion). If ``object_hook`` is also defined, the ``object_pairs_hook`` takes priority.

``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. 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. 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 ``JSONDecoder`` subclass, specify it with the ``cls`` kwarg; otherwise ``JSONDecoder`` is used.