Pretty print complex JSON input

Question

I have gone through How can I pretty-print JSON in (unix) shell script? and other Stackoverflow posts on "pretty print JSON" but they are only good for simple inputs like,

echo '{"foo": "lorem", "bar": "ipsum"}' | python -m json.tool

When I try to do something like this

echo '{"group" : {list : [1,2,3]}, "list" : ["a","b","c"]}' | python -m json.tool

it fails.

Gives me the error

Expecting property name enclosed in double quotes: line 1 column 13 (char 12)

PS: Why am I trying to pass a complex json input? I'm trying to solve question 1 from here

Edit: Thanks for prompt reply. But what if I'm looking for an output like this

{

"group" : {

"list" : [1,2,3]

},

"list" : ["a","b","c"]

}

You may want to let that site know their sample is invalid. – Martijn Pieters Oct 17 '14 at 07:56 — Martijn Pieters, Oct 17 '14 at 07:56

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 17 '14 at 07:52

Your JSON input is invalid; you need to quote the first list key:

echo '{"group" : {"list" : [1,2,3]}, "list" : ["a","b","c"]}' | python -m json.tool
#                 ^^^^^^

The tool can handle any complexity of JSON, provided you give it valid JSON input. With the error corrected, Python outputs:

$ echo '{"group" : {"list" : [1,2,3]}, "list" : ["a","b","c"]}' | python -m json.tool
{
    "group": {
        "list": [
            1,
            2,
            3
        ]
    },
    "list": [
        "a",
        "b",
        "c"
    ]
}

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 17 '14 at 07:52

1

In this line:

"group" : {list : [1,2,3]}

you have invalid json. it is expecting list to be a string, which is not. Hence the error. Changing:

"group" : {"list" : [1,2,3]}

will solve the issue.

answered Oct 17 '14 at 07:52

avi

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Pretty print complex JSON input

2 Answers2