Adding linebreak to json written by Python

Question

I created a new JSON document to upload data to a couchdb instance. The code works. The problem is that the data written by the Python script is displayed in a single line by text editors. Is there a way to add linebreaks? Here is the code:

newdict = {}
outputdict = {} 
docs_list = []

for number, item in enumerate(data['docs']):
    # pprint (item)
    # print item['key'][4]
    newdict["key1"] = item['key'][0]
    newdict["yek1"] = item['key'][1]
    newdict["key2"] = item['key'][2]
    newdict["yek2"] = item['key'][3]
    newdict["key3"] = item['key'][4]
    newdict["yek3"] = item['value']['lat']
    newdict["key4"] = item['value']['long']
    docs_list.append(newdict)

outputdict["docs"] = docs_list
outputdict = json.dumps(outputdict)
pprint (outputdict)

with open("filename.json",'w') as f:
    f.write(outputdict)

Possible duplicate of [how to python prettyprint a json file](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12943819/how-to-python-prettyprint-a-json-file) — midori, Feb 16 '16 at 00:23

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

4

From this answer try outputdict = json.dumps(outputdict, indent=4) with the number of spaces you want to indent.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

Community

1
1

answered Feb 16 '16 at 00:18

Phillip Martin

1,910
15
30

Tried this already. Doesn't work. No error is reported but line breaks are not added. – kurious Feb 16 '16 at 16:59
Worked for me in Python 3.6 – Hope Aug 07 '18 at 06:08

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 16 '16 at 00:40

0

It sounds like its a 'Carriage Return' + 'Newline' issue which will cause the file to open as one long line in a Windows text editor.

Try:

with open("filename.json",'w', newline='\r\n') as f:

or:

with open("filename.json",'w', newline='\n') as f:

or there may even be a setting in your Text Editor to correct this issue.

answered Feb 16 '16 at 00:40

Colin Dickie

910
4
9

1

Doesn't work. TypeError: 'newline' is an invalid keyword argument for this function – kurious Feb 16 '16 at 16:59
I use Sublime Text 3. Reindenting doesn't format the text. Is there another way to do it? – kurious Feb 16 '16 at 17:03

Adding linebreak to json written by Python

2 Answers2