decoding json string in python

Question

I have the following JSON string (from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON)

{
        "name":"Product",
        "properties":
        {
                "id":
                {
                        "type":"number",
                        "description":"Product identifier",
                        "required":true
                },
                "name":
                {
                        "type":"string",
                        "description":"Name of the product",
                        "required":true
                },
                "price":
                {
                        "type":"number",
                        "minimum":0,
                        "required":true
                },
                "tags":
                {
                        "type":"array",
                        "items":
                        {
                                "type":"string"
                        }
                },
                "stock":
                {
                        "type":"object",
                        "properties":
                        {
                                "warehouse":
                                {
                                        "type":"number"
                                },
                                "retail":
                                {
                                        "type":"number"
                                }
                        }
                }
        }
}

I am trying to decode this string using Python json library. I would like to access the node

properties - > stock - > properties - > warehouse.

I understand that json.loads() function stores the json string as a dictionary. But in this case properties is my key and everything under that are values. How do I access the above node.

import json
jsonText=""
file = open("c:/dir/jsondec.json")
for line in file.xreadlines():
    jsonText+=line
data = json.loads(jsonText)
for k,v in data.items():
    print k // shows name and properties
file.close();

Thanks

Are you aware of json.load()?

Wooble
– Wooble

2012-06-20 19:39:20 +00:00
Commented Jun 20, 2012 at 19:39 — Wooble
– Wooble, Commented Jun 20, 2012 at 19:39

Steve Mayne · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-20 19:47:57Z

18

You can load json straight from the file like this:

 f = open("c:/dir/jsondec.json")
 data = json.load(f)

Based on your input string, data is now a dictionary that contains other dictionaries. You can just navigate up the dictionaries like so:

 node = data['properties']['stock']['properties']['warehouse']
 print str(node)

edited Jun 20, 2012 at 19:47

answered Jun 20, 2012 at 19:39

Steve Mayne

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3 Comments

Steve Mayne Over a year ago

@Ankur sometimes your json won't come from a file - that's when you use loads.

Ank Over a year ago

Thanks.. In works for this json but in other json I get TypeError: list indices must be integers, not str. Can you guess why

Steve Mayne Over a year ago

The data structure you get back will entirely depend on the json you put in - the elements of your dictionaries might be scalar types, lists or dictionaries. If you have more generic iteration requirements, it might be worth editing your question.

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