Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a file that is mainly used to store and transfer data mostly between a server and a web application. It is popularly used for representing structured data. In this article, we will discuss how to handle JSON data using Python. Python provides a module called json which comes with Python's standard built-in utility.
Note: In Python, JSON data is usually represented as a string.
Importing ModuleTo use any module in Python it is always needed to import that module. We can import json module by using the import statement.
Example: Importing JSON module
Python3
# importing json module
import json
Parsing JSON - Converting from JSON to Python
The load() and loads() functions of the json module makes it easier to parse JSON object.
The loads() method is used to parse JSON strings in Python and the result will be a Python dictionary.
Syntax:
json.loads(json_string)
Example: Converting JSON to a dictionary
Python3
# Python program to convert JSON to Dict
import json
# JSON string
employee ='{"name": "Nitin", "department":"Finance",\
"company":"GFG"}'
# Convert string to Python dict
employee_dict = json.loads(employee)
print("Data after conversion")
print(employee_dict)
print(employee_dict['department'])
print("\nType of data")
print(type(employee_dict))
Data after conversion {'name': 'Nitin', 'department': 'Finance', 'company': 'GFG'} Finance Type of data <class 'dict'>
Note: For more information, refer to Parse Data From JSON into Python
Reading JSON fileload() method can read a file that contains a JSON object. Suppose you have a file named student.json that contains student data and we want to read that file.
Syntax:
json.load(file_object)
Example: Reading JSON file using Python
Let's suppose the file looks like this.
Python3
# Python program to read
# json file
import json
# Opening JSON file
f = open('data.json',)
# returns JSON object as
# a dictionary
data = json.load(f)
# Iterating through the json
# list
for i in data:
print(i)
# Closing file
f.close()
Output:
Note:
dump() and dumps() method of json module can be used to convert from Python object to JSON.
The following types of Python objects can be converted into JSON strings:
Python objects and their equivalent conversion to JSON:
Python JSON Equivalent dict object list, tuple array str string int, float number True true False false None null Converting to JSON stringdumps() method can convert a Python object into a JSON string.
Syntax:
json.dumps(dict, indent)
It takes two parameters:
Example: Converting Python dictionary to JSON string
Python3
# Python program to convert
# Python to JSON
import json
# Data to be written
dictionary = {
"name": "sunil",
"department": "HR",
"Company": 'GFG'
}
# Serializing json
json_object = json.dumps(dictionary)
print(json_object)
{"name": "sunil", "department": "HR", "Company": "GFG"}
Note: For more information about converting JSON to string, refer to Python - Convert to JSON string
Writing to a JSON filedump() method can be used for writing to JSON file.
Syntax:
json.dump(dict, file_pointer)
It takes 2 parameters:
Example: Writing to JSON File
Python3
# Python program to write JSON
# to a file
import json
# Data to be written
dictionary ={
"name" : "Nisha",
"rollno" : 420,
"cgpa" : 10.10,
"phonenumber" : "1234567890"
}
with open("sample.json", "w") as outfile:
json.dump(dictionary, outfile)
Output:
Formatting JSONIn the above example, you must have seen that when you convert the Python object to JSON it does not get formatted and output comes in a straight line. We can format the JSON by passing the indent parameter to the dumps() method.
Example: Formatting JSON
Python3
# Import required libraries
import json
# Initialize JSON data
json_data = '[ {"studentid": 1, "name": "Nikhil", "subjects": ["Python", "Data Structures"]},\
{"studentid": 2, "name": "Nisha", "subjects": ["Java", "C++", "R Lang"]} ]'
# Create Python object from JSON string
# data
data = json.loads(json_data)
# Pretty Print JSON
json_formatted_str = json.dumps(data, indent=4)
print(json_formatted_str)
[ { "studentid": 1, "name": "Nikhil", "subjects": [ "Python", "Data Structures" ] }, { "studentid": 2, "name": "Nisha", "subjects": [ "Java", "C++", "R Lang" ] } ]
Note: For more information, refer to Pretty Print JSON in Python
Sorting JSONWe can sort the JSON data with the help of the sort_keys parameter of the dumps() method. This parameter takes a boolean value and returns the sorted JSON if the value passed is True. By default, the value passed is False.
Example: Sorting JSON
Python3
# Import required libraries
import json
# Initialize JSON data
json_data = '[ {"studentid": 1, "name": "Nikhil", "subjects":\
["Python", "Data Structures"], "company":"GFG"},\
{"studentid": 2, "name": "Nisha", "subjects":\
["Java", "C++", "R Lang"], "company":"GFG"} ]'
# Create Python object from JSON string
# data
data = json.loads(json_data)
# Pretty Print JSON
json_formatted_str = json.dumps(data, indent=4, sort_keys=True)
print(json_formatted_str)
[ { "company": "GFG", "name": "Nikhil", "studentid": 1, "subjects": [ "Python", "Data Structures" ] }, { "company": "GFG", "name": "Nisha", "studentid": 2, "subjects": [ "Java", "C++", "R Lang" ] } ]
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