Python: load text as python object [duplicate]

If you really have to load the bulls... this data is (see my comment), you's propably best of with a regex adding missing quotes. Something like r"([a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z_0-9]*)\s*\:" to find things to quote and r"\'\1\'\:" as replacement (off the top of my head, I have to test it first).

Edit: After some troulbe with backward-references in Python 3.1, I finally got it working with these:

>>> pattern = r"([a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z_0-9]*)\s*\:"
>>> test = '{"foo": {bar: 1}}'
>>> repl = lambda match: '"{}":'.format(match.group(1))
>>> eval(re.sub(pattern, repl, test))
{'foo': {'bar': 1}}

Till now with help of delnan and a little investigation I can load it into dict with eval:

pattern = r"\b(?P<word>\w+):"
x = re.sub(pattern, '"\g<word>":',open("the_file", "r").read())
y = x.replace("true", '"true"')
d = eval(y)

Still looking for more efficient and maybe simpler solution.. I don't like to use "eval" for some reasons.

Extension of the DominiCane's version:

import re

quote_keys_regex = re.compile(r'([\{\s,])(\w+)(:)')


def js_variable_to_python(js_variable):
    """Convert a javascript variable into JSON and then load the value"""
    # when in_string is not None, it contains the character that has opened the string
    # either simple quote or double quote
    in_string = None
    # cut the string:
    # r"""{ a:"f\"irst", c:'sec"ond'}"""
    # becomes
    # ['{ a:', '"', 'f\\', '"', 'irst', '"', ', c:', "'", 'sec', '"', 'ond', "'", '}']
    l = re.split(r'(["\'])', js_variable)
    # previous part (to check the escape character antislash)
    previous_p = ""
    for i, p in enumerate(l):
        # parse characters inside a ECMA string 
        if in_string:
            # we are in a JS string: replace the colon by a temporary character
            # so quote_keys_regex doesn't have to deal with colon inside the JS strings
            l[i] = l[i].replace(':', chr(1))
            if in_string == "'":
                # the JS string is delimited by simple quote.
                # This is not supported by JSON.
                # simple quote delimited string are converted to double quote delimited string
                # here, inside a JS string, we escape the double quote
                l[i] = l[i].replace('"', r'\"')

        # deal with delimieters and escape character
        if not in_string and p in ('"', "'"):
            # we are not in string
            # but p is double or simple quote
            # that's the start of a new string
            # replace simple quote by double quote
            # (JSON doesn't support simple quote)
            l[i] = '"'
            in_string = p
            continue
        if p == in_string:
            # we are in a string and the current part MAY close the string
            if len(previous_p) > 0 and previous_p[-1] == '\\':
                # there is an antislash just before: the JS string continue
                continue
            # the current p close the string
            # replace simple quote by double quote
            l[i] = '"'
            in_string = None
        # update previous_p
        previous_p = p
    # join the string
    s = ''.join(l)
    # add quote arround the key
    # { a: 12 }
    # becomes
    # { "a": 12 }
    s = quote_keys_regex.sub(r'\1"\2"\3', s)
    # replace the surogate character by colon
    s = s.replace(chr(1), ':')
    # load the JSON and return the result
    return json.loads(s)

It deals only with int, null and string. I don't know about float.

Note that the usage chr(1): the code doesn't work if this character in js_variable.