How do I write JSON in Python?

In this article, we will learn different types of methods to write JSON in python.

Conversion Rules

When converting a Python object to JSON data, the dump() method follows the conversion rules listed below −

Python	JSON
dict	object
list, tuple	array
str	string
int, float	number
True	true
False	false
None	null

Writing Dictionary into a JSON File

The function of json.dump() is to arrange a Python object into a JSON formatted stream into the specified file.

Syntax

dump(obj, fp, *, skipkeys=False,
   check_circular=True, allow_nan=True,
   indent=None, separators=None, default=None,
   sort_keys=False, **kw)

Parameters

• obj − obj is known as object that arranges as a JSON formatted stream.

• fp −the fp also know as file object will store JSON data.

• skipkeys − The default value is False. It ignores the Keys of dict that are not of a basic type. Orelse, it will throw a TypeError.

• check_circular − It's default value is True. It's main task is to perform circular reference check for container types. This sometimes get the output result in an OverflowError.

• allow_nan − It's e default value is True. If false, serializing out-of-range float values will result in a ValueError.It uses JavaScript equivalents like -NaN, Infinity, -Infinity by default.

• indent − It is used for good printing with a specified order.

• separators − These are the ones used in the JSON.

• default − this function is called when an object fails to serialized. It either returns object's JSON-encoded version or throw a TypeError. If no type is given, a TypeError is defaulty thrown.

• sort_keys − It's default value is False. If true, the dictionaries' output will be ordered/sorted by key.

Example

The following program converts the given dictionary to a JSON file using the json.dump() function −

# importing json module
import json

# creating a dictionary
inputDict = {
   "website": "Tutorialspoint",
   "authorName": "xyz",
   "Age": 25,
   "Address": "hyderabad",
   "pincode":"503004"
}

# opening a JSON file in write mode
with open('outputfile.json', 'w') as json_file:

   # writing the dictionary data into the corresponding JSON file
   json.dump(inputDict, json_file)

Output

On executing, the above program will generate the following output −

{"website": "Tutorialspoint", "authorName": "xyz", "Age": 25, "Address": "hyderabad", "pincode": "503004"}

A file named outputfile.json is created containing the above dictionary data.

Using the Indent Parameter

Use the indent parameter of the method dump() for attractive printing.

Example

The following program converts the given dictionary to a pretty JSON file with indentation using the json.dump() function and indent argument −

# importing JSON module
import json

# creating a dictionary
inputDict = {
   "website": "Tutorialspoint",
   "authorName": "xyz",
   "Age": 25,
   "Address": "hyderabad",
   "pincode":"503004"
}

# opening a JSON file in write mode
with open('outputfile.json', 'w') as json_file:

   # writing the dictionary data into the corresponding JSON file
   # by adding indent parameter to make it attractive with proper indentation
   json.dump(inputDict, json_file, indent=5)

Output

On executing, the above program will generate the following output −

{
   "website": "Tutorialspoint",
   "authorName": "xyz",
   "Age": 25,
   "Address": "hyderabad",
   "pincode": "503004"
}

A file named outputfile.json is created containing the above dictionary data with a proper indentation for making it more pretty.

Sorting the Keys in JSON

We can sort the keys of a dictionary alphabetically using the sort_keys = True parameter.

The following program converts the given dictionary to a sorted JSON file with indentation using the json.dump() function and sort_keys argument−

# importing JSON module
import json

# creating a dictionary
inputDict = {
   "website": "Tutorialspoint",
   "authorName": "xyz",
   "Age": 25,
   "Address": "hyderabad",
   "pincode":"503004"
}

# opening a JSON file in write mode
with open('outputfile.json', 'w') as json_file:

   # writing the dictionary data into the corresponding JSON file
   # indent parameter- to make it attractive with proper indentation
   # sort_keys- sorts the dictionary keys alphabetically
   json.dump(inputDict, json_file, indent=5, sort_keys=True)

Output

{
   "Address": "hyderabad",
   "Age": 25,
   "authorName": "xyz",
   "pincode": "503004",
   "website": "Tutorialspoint"
}

The keys are now sorted alphabetically, as seen above.

Separators are an additional argument that can be used. In this, you can use any separator you like (", ", ": ", ",", ":").

Converting Python List to JSON

Example

The following program converts the python list to JSON string using dumps() function −

# importing JSON module
import json

# input list
inputList = [2, 4, 6, 7]

# converting input list into JSON string using dumps() function
jsonString = json.dumps(inputList)

# printing the resultant JSON string
print(jsonString)

# printing the type of resultant JSON string
print(type(jsonString))

Output

[2, 4, 6, 7]
<class 'str'>

Converting Directories Python List to JSON

Example

The following program converts the Directories python list to JSON string. using dumps() function −

# importing json module
import json

# input list of dictionaries
list_dict = [{'x':10, 'y':20, 'z':30}, {'p':40, 'q':50}]

# converting list of dictionaries into json string
jsonData = json.dumps(list_dict)

# printing the JSON data
print(jsonData)

Output

[{"x": 10, "y": 20, "z": 30}, {"p": 40, "q": 50}]

Converting Python List of Lists to JSON

Example

The following program converts the Python List of Lists to JSON string using dumps() function −

# importing JSON module
import json

# input list of lists
list_of_list = [[{'x':10, 'y':20, 'z':30}], [{'p':40, 'q':50}]]

# converting a list of list into JSON string
jsonString = json.dumps(list_of_list)

# printing the resultant JSON string
print(jsonString)

Output

[[{"x": 10, "y": 20, "z": 30}], [{"p": 40, "q": 50}]]

Conclusion

This article contains a variety of techniques for converting various data formats to JSON files, JSON strings, etc. json.dumps(), which is used to convert any form of iterable to JSON, has also been covered in depth.