Convert json with data from each id in different lines into one line per id with python

AldanaBRZ 0
Viewed 18

I have a json file with the following format:

{
"responses":[
{
"id":"123",
"cid":"01A",
"response":{nested lists and dictionaries}
},
{
"id":"456",
"cid":"54G",
"response":{nested lists and dictionaries}
}
]}

And so on.

And I want to convert it into a json file like this:

{"id":"123", "cid":"01A", "response":{nested lists and dictionaries}},
{"id":"456", "cid":"54G", "response":{nested lists and dictionaries}}

or

{responses:[
{"id":"123", "cid":"01A", "response":{nested lists and dictionaries}},
{"id":"456", "cid":"54G", "response":{nested lists and dictionaries}}
]}

I don't care about the surrounding format as long as I have the information for each ID in just one line.

I have to do this while reading it because things like pd.read_json don't read this kind of file.

Thanks!

format json python
2 Answers

You can use the built-in json library to print each response on a separate line. The json.dump() function has an option to indent, if you want that, but its default is to put everything on one line, like what you want.

Here's an example that works for the input you showed in your post.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import json
import sys

with open(sys.argv[1]) as json_file:
    obj = json.load(json_file)

print("{responses:[")
for response in obj['responses']:
    print(json.dumps(response))
print("]}")

Usage (assuming you named the program format_json.py):

$ chmod +x format_json.py
$ format_json.py my_json_input.json > my_json_output.json

Or, if you're not in a command-line environment, you can also hardcode the input and output filenames:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import json
import sys

infile = 'my_json_input.json'
outfile = 'my_json_output.json'

with open(infile) as json_file:
    obj = json.load(json_file)

print("{responses:[", file=outfile)
for response in obj['responses']:
    print(json.dumps(response), file=outfile)
print("]}", file=outfile)
N. Kern0

Maybe just dump it line wise? But I guess I didn't understand your question right?

import json

input_lines = {"responses": ...}

with open("output.json", "w") as f:
    for line in input_lines["responses"]:
        f.write(json.dumps(line) + "\n")
loki.dev0
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