Python dict to json without backslash

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. I have a dictionary that I want to convert to JSON. My problem is with the escape \

How do I put a dictionary into JSON without the escape \

Here is my code:

def printJSON(dump):
    print(json.dumps(dump, indent=4, sort_keys=True))

data = {'number':7, 'second_number':44}
json_data = json.dumps(data)
printJSON(json_data)

The output is: "{\"second_number\": 44, \"number\": 7}"

I want the output to look like this: "{"second_number": 44, "number": 7}"

asked Nov 29, 2016 at 19:34

4

The reason is because you are dumping your JSON data twice. Once outside the function and another inside it. For reference:

>>> import json    
>>> data = {'number':7, 'second_number':44}

# JSON dumped once, without `\`
>>> json.dumps(data)
'{"second_number": 44, "number": 7}'

# JSON dumped twice, with `\`
>>> json.dumps(json.dumps(data))
'"{\\"second_number\\": 44, \\"number\\": 7}"'

If you print the data dumped twice, you will see what you are getting currently, i.e:

>>> print json.dumps(json.dumps(data))
"{\"second_number\": 44, \"number\": 7}"

answered Nov 29, 2016 at 19:37

Moinuddin QuadriMoinuddin Quadri

44.6k12 gold badges92 silver badges118 bronze badges

1

I had a slightly different problem that resulted in the same issue. My code had this:

requests.post('https://example.com/data', data=clinicListBody).text

When it should have had this

requests.post('https://example.com/data', data=clinicListBody).json()

.text was returning a string with strings inside it, which is why I was seeing escaped json in the saved file.

answered Jun 13 at 3:51

json.dump(s) & json.load(s)

bogotobogo.com site search:

json.load(s) & json.dump(s)

There are two ways of reading in (load/loads) the following json file, in.json:

{"alpha": 1, "beta": 2}    

1. string:

   import json
   
   io = open("in.json","r")
   string = io.read()
   # json.loads(str)
   dictionary = json.loads(string)
   
   # or one-liner
   # dictionary = json.loads(open("in.json","r").read())
   
   print(dictionary)
   



2. dictionary:

   import json
   # json.load(_io)
   io = open("in.json","r")
   dictionary = json.load(io)
   
   # or one-liner
   # dictionary = json.load(open("in.json","r"))
   
   print(dictionary)
   

Both will print out:

{'alpha': 1, 'beta': 2}

Note that while the json.loads() requires string, load(s,...), the json.load() requires file descriptor, load(fp...).

Similarly, we can write a (dump/dumps) json file:

1. string:

   import json
   d = {'alpha': 1, 'beta': 2}
   s = json.dumps(d)
   open("out.json","w").write(s)
   



2. dictionary:

   import json
   d = {'alpha': 1, 'beta': 2}
   json.dump(d, open("out.json","w"))
   

Note that the json.dump() requires file descriptor as well as an obj, dump(obj, fp...).

In the following example, we'll convert Python dictionary to JSON and write it to a text file. Then, we'll read in back from the file and play with it.

Initially we'll construct Python dictionary like this:

# Four Fundamental Forces with JSON
d = {}

d ["gravity"] = {
"mediator":"gravitons",
"relative strength" : "1",
"range" : "infinity"
}
d ["weak"] = {
"mediator":"W/Z bosons",
"relative strength" : "10^25",
"range" : "10^-18"
}
d ["electromagnetic"] = {
"mediator":"photons",
"relative strength" : "10^36",
"range" : "infinity"
}
d ["strong"] = {
"mediator":"gluons",
"relative strength" : "10^38",
"range" : "10^-15"
}

print(d)

The output looks like this:

{'electromagnetic': {'relative strength': '10^36', 'range': 'infinity', 'mediator': 'photons'}, 'strong': {'relative strength': '10^38', 'range': '10^-15', 'mediator': 'gluons'}, 'weak': {'relative strength': '10^25', 'range': '10^-18', 'mediator': 'W/Z bosons'}, 'gravity': {'relative strength': '1', 'range': 'infinity', 'mediator': 'gravitons'}}

Now, we want to convert the dictionary to a string using json.dumps:

import json
data = json.dumps(d)
print(type(data))
print(data)

Output:

{"electromagnetic": {"relative strength": "10^36", "range": "infinity", "mediator": "photons"}, "strong": {"relative strength": "10^38", "range": "10^-15", "mediator": "gluons"}, "weak": {"relative strength": "10^25", "range": "10^-18", "mediator": "W/Z bosons"}, "gravity": {"relative strength": "1", "range": "infinity", "mediator": "gravitons"}}

Note that the "json.dumps()" returns a string as indicated by the "s" at the end of "dumps". This process is called encoding.

Let's write it to a file:

import json
data = json.dumps(d)
with open("4forces.json","w") as f:
  f.write(data)

Now that the file is written. Let's reads it back and decoding the JSON-encoded string back into a Python dictionary data structure:

# reads it back
with open("4forces.json","r") as f:
  data = f.read()

# decoding the JSON to dictionay
d = json.loads(data)

Let's play with the dictionary a little bit.

What's the relative strength of electromagnetic compared to gravity?

print(d["electromagnetic"]["relative strength"])
10^36

Who's the mediator for "strong" force?

print(d["strong"]["mediator"])
gluons

Ok, here is the full code:

# Four Fundamental Forces with JSON
d = {}

d ["gravity"] = {
"mediator":"gravitons",
"relative strength" : "1",
"range" : "infinity"
}
d ["weak"] = {
"mediator":"W/Z bosons",
"relative strength" : "10^25",
"range" : "10^-18"
}
d ["electromagnetic"] = {
"mediator":"photons",
"relative strength" : "10^36",
"range" : "infinity"
}
d ["strong"] = {
"mediator":"gluons",
"relative strength" : "10^38",
"range" : "10^-15"
}

import json

# encoding to JSON
data = json.dumps(d)

# write to a file
with open("4forces.json","w") as f:
  f.write(data)

# reads it back
with open("4forces.json","r") as f:
  data = f.read()

# decoding the JSON to dictionay
d = json.loads(data)

print(d)

If we prefer working with files instead of strings, we may want to use json.dump() / json.load() to encode / decode JSON data using the data from the previous example:

# write to a file
with open("4forces.json","w") as f:
  json.dump(d, f)

# reads it back
with open("4forces.json","r") as f:
  d = json.load(f)

Here is another example (json.dump()/json.load()) using simpler data:

import json

# in.json file - {"alpha":1, "beta":2}
with open("in.json","r") as fr:
  out_dict = json.load(fr)
print(out_dict)

in_dict = {"a":1,"b":2}
with open("out.json","w") as fw:
    json.dump(in_dict, fw)
# out.json file - {"a":1,"b":2}

Usage for string version: json.loads()/json.dumps():

import json

# string version of json load & dump

# in.json file - {"alpha":1, "beta":2}
with open("in.json", "r") as fr:
    out_str = fr.read()
out_dict = json.loads(out_str)

# in_dict = {"a":1,"b":2}
in_str = json.dumps(in_dict)
with open("out.json","w") as fw:
    fw.write(in_str)
# out.json file - {"a":1,"b":2}

The following example sends a syslog to logstash fargate containers behind AWS NLB:

import socket
import json
import sys

HOST = 'demo-NLB-.....elb.us-west-2.amazonaws.com'
PORT = 6514

try:
  sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
except socket.error as error:
  if error.errno == errno.ECONNREFUSED:
        print(os.strerror(error.errno))
  else:
        raise

try:
  sock.connect((HOST, PORT))
except socket.error as error:
  if error.errno == errno.ECONNREFUSED:
        print(os.strerror(error.errno))
  else:
        raise

msg = {'@message': 'May 11 10:40:48 scrooge disk-health-nurse[26783]: [ID 702911 user.error] m:SY-mon-full-500 c:H : partition health measures for /var did not suffice - still using 96% of partition space', '@tags': ['python', 'test']}

sock.send(json.dumps(msg).encode())

sock.close()
sys.exit(0)  

note that for the HOST, we can also use FQDN instead of the NLB's domain name.

Also, as usual, instead of the long line of code, we may want to use a simple linux command, nc:

$ echo "message at $(date) from khong" | nc demo-NLB-.....elb.us-west-2.amazonaws.com 6514    

If the NLB listener protocol is TLS, we can use openssl echo to the TLS NLB:

$ echo "message at $(date) from khong's mac" | openssl s_client -connect demo-TSL-NLB-.....elb.us-west-2.amazonaws.com:6514 -ign_eof    

Another example: AWS API response.

When we make an AWS API call, the response can be an invalid json due to datetime:

datetime.datetime(2021, 8, 25, 22, 45, 28, tzinfo = tzutc())    

We need to serialize it (ow to overcome “datetime.datetime not JSON serializable”?).

Here is a boto3 code for an API call to EC2 describe:

import boto3
import json

ec2 = boto3.client('ec2')
response = ec2.describe_instances()
s = json.dumps(response, default=str)
open("r.json","w").write(s)
print(response)    

The r.json with jq looks like this:

$ cat r.json | jq '.'
{
  "Reservations": [
    {
      "Groups": [],
      "Instances": [
        {
          "AmiLaunchIndex": 0,
          "ImageId": "ami-083ac7c7ecf9bb9b0",
          "InstanceId": "i-065ddf45930536083",
          "InstanceType": "t2.micro",
          "LaunchTime": "2021-08-25 22:45:28+00:00",
          "Monitoring": {
            "State": "disabled"
          },
          "Placement": {
            "AvailabilityZone": "us-west-2a",
            "GroupName": "",
            "Tenancy": "default"
          },
          "PrivateDnsName": "ip-10-99-101-164.us-west-2.compute.internal",
          "PrivateIpAddress": "10.99.101.164",
          "ProductCodes": [],
          "PublicDnsName": "ec2-34-219-168-233.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com",
          "PublicIpAddress": "34.219.168.233",
          "State": {
            "Code": 16,
            "Name": "running"
          },
          "StateTransitionReason": "",
          "SubnetId": "subnet-0c28e356543ecb34f",
          "VpcId": "vpc-02fda1ad9b61c51a2",
          "Architecture": "x86_64",
          "BlockDeviceMappings": [
            {
              "DeviceName": "/dev/xvda",
              "Ebs": {
                "AttachTime": "2021-08-25 22:45:29+00:00",
                "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                "Status": "attached",
                "VolumeId": "vol-0632c2b714a0cec83"
              }
            }
          ],
          "ClientToken": "",
          "EbsOptimized": false,
          "EnaSupport": true,
          "Hypervisor": "xen",
          "IamInstanceProfile": {
            "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::197828489041:instance-profile/AmazonSSMRoleForInstancesQuickSetup",
            "Id": "AIPAVPSFGBEENL5E6UYJ7"
          },
          "NetworkInterfaces": [
            {
              "Association": {
                "IpOwnerId": "amazon",
                "PublicDnsName": "ec2-34-219-168-233.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com",
                "PublicIp": "34.219.168.233"
              },
              "Attachment": {
                "AttachTime": "2021-08-25 22:45:28+00:00",
                "AttachmentId": "eni-attach-0e740740b080380ab",
                "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                "DeviceIndex": 0,
                "Status": "attached",
                "NetworkCardIndex": 0
              },
              "Description": "Primary network interface",
              "Groups": [
                {
                  "GroupName": "delete-me",
                  "GroupId": "sg-00bee859aca8c03ab"
                }
              ],
              "Ipv6Addresses": [],
              "MacAddress": "02:06:a7:41:c0:73",
              "NetworkInterfaceId": "eni-089753322166f05ab",
              "OwnerId": "197828489041",
              "PrivateDnsName": "ip-10-99-101-164.us-west-2.compute.internal",
              "PrivateIpAddress": "10.99.101.164",
              "PrivateIpAddresses": [
                {
                  "Association": {
                    "IpOwnerId": "amazon",
                    "PublicDnsName": "ec2-34-219-168-233.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com",
                    "PublicIp": "34.219.168.233"
                  },
                  "Primary": true,
                  "PrivateDnsName": "ip-10-99-101-164.us-west-2.compute.internal",
                  "PrivateIpAddress": "10.99.101.164"
                }
              ],
              "SourceDestCheck": true,
              "Status": "in-use",
              "SubnetId": "subnet-0c28e356543ecb34f",
              "VpcId": "vpc-02fda1ad9b61c51a2",
              "InterfaceType": "interface"
            }
          ],
          "RootDeviceName": "/dev/xvda",
          "RootDeviceType": "ebs",
          "SecurityGroups": [
            {
              "GroupName": "delete-me",
              "GroupId": "sg-00bee859aca8c03ab"
            }
          ],
          "SourceDestCheck": true,
          "VirtualizationType": "hvm",
          "CpuOptions": {
            "CoreCount": 1,
            "ThreadsPerCore": 1
          },
          "CapacityReservationSpecification": {
            "CapacityReservationPreference": "open"
          },
          "HibernationOptions": {
            "Configured": false
          },
          "MetadataOptions": {
            "State": "applied",
            "HttpTokens": "optional",
            "HttpPutResponseHopLimit": 1,
            "HttpEndpoint": "enabled",
            "HttpProtocolIpv6": "disabled"
          },
          "EnclaveOptions": {
            "Enabled": false
          }
        }
      ],
      "OwnerId": "197828489041",
      "ReservationId": "r-0b6752f9a69f3ba08"
    }
  ],
  "ResponseMetadata": {
    "RequestId": "5cd271e5-3631-4e4c-a07d-78d169514e39",
    "HTTPStatusCode": 200,
    "HTTPHeaders": {
      "x-amzn-requestid": "5cd271e5-3631-4e4c-a07d-78d169514e39",
      "cache-control": "no-cache, no-store",
      "strict-transport-security": "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains",
      "content-type": "text/xml;charset=UTF-8",
      "content-length": "7803",
      "vary": "accept-encoding",
      "date": "Thu, 26 Aug 2021 00:02:15 GMT",
      "server": "AmazonEC2"
    },
    "RetryAttempts": 0
  }
}    

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