Parse unicode JSON string

Question

I've some difficulties to parse a unicode JSON string.

sample:

js = "{'to': 1234, 'message': u'sample message', 'user': 65773722, 'msgId': 28198}"

I want to iterate the JSON object to retrieve the values.

I've already tried, json.dumps, json.loads and js.decode('unicode-escape'), but I keep getting error messages.

Please help..I'm stuck !

Many thanks !

That is not a valid json string. The string should be enclosed using " and not ', also the u'' is not valid. Use something like http://jsonlint.com/ to validate. If you use Chrome I would recommend https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/json-formatter/bcjindcccaagfpapjjmafapmmgkkhgoa to validate and view json well formatted. — edepe, Mar 07 '15 at 18:14
`js` is not a unicode string, but a bytestring that happens to contain a unicode literal. It is not clear whether you are trying to construct a valid json string, or whether you are trying to parse a string that someone else gave you (that only pretends to be valid json). — Terry Jan Reedy, Mar 07 '15 at 21:22

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 07 '15 at 16:02

3

Unfortunately someone goofed, and that's not JSON.

>>> ast.literal_eval(js)
{'to': 1234, 'message': u'sample message', 'user': 65773722, 'msgId': 28198}

answered Mar 07 '15 at 16:02

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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@Ignaciao; I do not understand what you mean. Please explain ! – John Doe Mar 07 '15 at 16:07
String not JSON. JSON functions not work. Find other way to parse. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Mar 07 '15 at 16:09
Treat it as a dictionary maybe ? – John Doe Mar 07 '15 at 16:20
It's a string. It needs to be parsed before you can access it. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Mar 07 '15 at 16:22
It is JSON, the u at the beginning of the string shows that it's encoded in unicode [see here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11279331/what-does-the-u-symbol-mean-in-front-of-string-values) – Darbio Sep 18 '17 at 05:49
@Darbio: The `u` prefix only applies to *Python* strings. It is *not* valid in JSON. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Sep 18 '17 at 06:28

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 07 '15 at 19:12

1

it is not valid json

s = "{'to': 1234, 'message': u'sample message', 'user': 65773722, 'msgId': 28198}"
valid = s.replace("u'", "'")
supervalid = v.replace("'", '"')
json.loads(super_valid)

answered Mar 07 '15 at 19:12

VelikiiNehochuha

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I'am convinced (except for the errors in the variables) ;-)) – John Doe Mar 08 '15 at 13:52
Yes =), valid = s.replace("u'", "'"); supervalid = valid.replace("'", '"'); json.loads(supervalid) – VelikiiNehochuha Mar 08 '15 at 14:10

Parse unicode JSON string

2 Answers2