Python: converting a list of dictionaries to json

Question

I have a list of dictionaries, looking some thing like this:

list = [{'id': 123, 'data': 'qwerty', 'indices': [1,10]}, {'id': 345, 'data': 'mnbvc', 'indices': [2,11]}]

and so on. There may be more documents in the list. I need to convert these to one JSON document, that can be returned via bottle, and I cannot understand how to do this. Please help. I saw similar questions on this website, but I couldn't understand the solutions there.

score 172 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 03 '14 at 10:52

172

use json library

import json
json.dumps(list)

by the way, you might consider changing variable list to another name, list is the builtin function for a list creation, you may get some unexpected behaviours or some buggy code if you don't change the variable name.

answered Feb 03 '14 at 10:52

markcial

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Okay. This is just a sample, and I am using the name mylist for this. Does dumps() work for lists too? I thought it was only supposed to be used for dicts. – Apoorv Ashutosh Feb 03 '14 at 10:54
Is it possible to save the file as JSON Column Array or JSON row Array? – Anoop Toffy Apr 21 '16 at 16:13
1

NOTE: re-assigning list (list=[1,2,3]) conflicts with the builtin method list(). please keep in mind. – nikhil swami Sep 19 '20 at 22:23
I want to remove outer arrays, @markcial. Can you please help? – Abdul Haseeb Sep 15 '21 at 20:08
reply to @Abdul Haseeb take a look at https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html and list.pop([i]) – trevellyon Nov 01 '21 at 11:12

score 62 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 02 '20 at 11:53

62

import json

list = [{'id': 123, 'data': 'qwerty', 'indices': [1,10]}, {'id': 345, 'data': 'mnbvc', 'indices': [2,11]}]

Write to json File:

with open('/home/ubuntu/test.json', 'w') as fout:
    json.dump(list , fout)

Read Json file:

with open(r"/home/ubuntu/test.json", "r") as read_file:
    data = json.load(read_file)
print(data)
#list = [{'id': 123, 'data': 'qwerty', 'indices': [1,10]}, {'id': 345, 'data': 'mnbvc', 'indices': [2,11]}]

edited Jan 02 '20 at 11:53

snakecharmerb

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answered Mar 14 '19 at 06:50

Ramineni Ravi Teja

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NOTE: re-assigning list (list=[1,2,3]) conflicts with the builtin method list(). please keep in mind. – nikhil swami Sep 19 '20 at 22:24
Wouldn't just data = json.dumps(list, indent=2) be enough? Am I missing something? – precise Dec 27 '22 at 20:30

Akhilesh Joshi · Answer 3 · 2019-04-10T20:10:35.067

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response_json = ("{ \"response_json\":" + str(list_of_dict)+ "}").replace("\'","\"")
response_json = json.dumps(response_json)
response_json = json.loads(response_json)

edited Apr 10 '19 at 20:10

answered Apr 10 '19 at 20:05

Akhilesh Joshi

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Hi! While this may solve OP's problem, it is generally discouraged to write code only answers on SO. Please provide some explanation as to why this is a solution to the problem as it will help OP better understand and will benefit future visitors of the site. Thanks! – d_kennetz Apr 10 '19 at 22:18

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 14 '18 at 17:40

0

To convert it to a single dictionary with some decided keys value, you can use the code below.

data = ListOfDict.copy()
PrecedingText = "Obs_"
ListOfDictAsDict = {}
for i in range(len(data)):
    ListOfDictAsDict[PrecedingText + str(i)] = data[i]

answered Mar 14 '18 at 17:40

Mohit Rajput

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Python: converting a list of dictionaries to json

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