JSON is very similar to Python syntax. Can all JSON objects directly convert to Python without error?
Example
The following is a valid JSON object:
// Valid JSON
{"foo":"bar"}
This object will directly translate to a Python dictionary with key "foo" and value "bar":
# Python
json_dict = eval('{"foo":"bar"}')
No. In particular, true, false, and null are not Python, although they do have direct equivalents in Python (True, False, and None respectively).
// Valid JSON
{"sky_is_blue":true}
But when used in Python...
# Python
>>> json_dict = eval('{"sky_is_blue":true}')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name 'true' is not defined
NaN and Infinity aren't strictly JSON, but may be found in JSON strings (indeed, Python's json module will use them unless specifically told not to).
This question has been answered (and the answer accepted) already, but I'd like to point out that the problem of true, false and null not being Python can be overcome by using the following code before evaluating JSON:
true = True
false = False
null = None
Of course, a JSON-parser is still better.
ast.literal_eval mentioned by FogleBird above could be used to construct a fast pure Python JSON parser.
string.replace('true', 'True') etc. before passing to ast.literal_eval. Of course, that does nasty things to {"Quote": "This sentence is false."}.
ast.literal_evalwhich is much safer thaneval.