Convert String to JSON in Python

Function json.loads() accepts JSON string and converts it to Python dictionary (deserialization). The last letter in load(s) stands for “string”.

import json

my_string = '{"first_name": "John", "last_name": "Doe", "age": 35}'

my_dict = json.loads(my_string)

print(my_dict['first_name'], my_dict['last_name'], my_dict['age'])

print(type(my_dict))

If you run this code, you can display individual elements inside a dictionary. Use the type() function to check the type of the object.

John Doe 35
<class 'dict'>

Load vs Loads

json.load() instead of converting a string, uses it as a path to a file and then converts its contents if they are formatted as JSON file.

Create a file called file.json and insert the following text into it:

{
    "fruit": "pear",
    "size": "medium",
    "color": "yellow"
}

Now, it’s time to load it using the function.

import json

with open("D://file.json", "r") as content:

my_dict = json.load(content)

print(my_dict['fruit'], my_dict['size'], my_dict['color'])

This code opens the file with JSON data and assigns it to a dictionary, then the data is printed.

pear medium yellow

If you change the function load() to loads(), Python is going to return an error.

TypeError: the JSON object must be str, bytes or bytearray, not TextIOWrapper