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How to convert Python dictionary to JSON
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- Name
- Python Roadmap
- @PythonRoadmap
Table of contents
Introduction
Python provides a simple way to convert a Python dictionary to JSON format using the built-in json
module. If you don't already know what a python dictionary or JSON is, we've given a small introduction to both below.
What is Python dictionary ?
In Python, a dictionary is an unordered collection of key-value pairs enclosed in curly braces {}
. Each key in a dictionary must be unique and associated with a value. Dictionaries are commonly used for data storage and retrieval, where each key serves as a unique identifier for its corresponding value.
Dictionaries are mutable, which means that their contents can be modified after creation. In Python, dictionaries are a fundamental data structure and are used in many applications, including web development, data analysis, and machine learning.
What is JSON ?
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data interchange format that is easy for humans to read and write and easy for machines to parse and generate. It is a text-based format that represents data as key-value pairs, similar to a Python dictionary.
JSON is widely used for data storage, serialization, and communication between systems, particularly in web applications and APIs. It is a language-independent format, which means that it can be used with any programming language.
JSON has become the preferred data format for many web developers due to its simplicity, flexibility, and compatibility with a wide range of programming languages and systems.
In this blog post, we will explore how to convert a Python dictionary to JSON format using the json
module.
Converting Python dict to JSON
json
module
Step 1 : Import the The first step is to import the json module. This module provides two methods for converting Python objects to JSON format: dumps()
and dump()
. The dumps()
method is used to convert a Python object to a JSON formatted string, while the dump()
method is used to write a Python object to a file in JSON format.
We'll see examples for both the methods in the next steps. For now, let's import the json
module.
import json
Step 2 : Define the Python dictionary
Next, we define the Python dictionary that we want to convert to JSON format. In this example, we will define a simple dictionary with key-value pairs representing information about a person.
person = {
"name": "James Bond",
"age": 30,
"city": "London"
}
Step 3: Convert the dictionary to JSON format
Once we have defined the dictionary, we can convert it to JSON format using the json.dumps()
or json.dump()
method.
Converting dict to JSON using json.dumps() method
This method takes a Python object as input and returns a string in JSON format.
import json
person = {
"name": "James Bond",
"age": 30,
"city": "London"
}
print(json.dumps(person))
The above code will convert the dictionary person
to JSON string and print it to your terminal.
Converting dict to JSON using json.dump() method
This method takes two input arguments, a Python object and a file object. This method will convert the given python dict to JSON and store it to the given file. Let's try this with an example :
import json
person = {
"name": "James Bond",
"age": 30,
"city": "London"
}
json.dump(person, open("response.json", "w"))
The above code will convert the dictionary person
to JSON string and will store it in the file response.json
.
We have successfully converted the Python dictionary to JSON format.
Conclusion
Converting a Python dictionary to JSON format is a straightforward process using the json module. We can use the json.dumps()
method to convert a Python object to a JSON formatted string. JSON is a popular format for data interchange and is widely used in web applications, APIs, and data storage. By converting Python objects to JSON format, we can easily share and exchange data with other systems that use JSON as a data format.
In this blog post we saw the different ways python dictionary can be converted to JSON. Hope you liked reading this post!