How to write JSON to file
Posted in Python by Dirk - last update: Feb 02, 2024
To save a JSON to a file in Python, use json.dump (data, file_object) where data is the JSON-like object, and file_object is the opened file in write mode.
What is JSON
JSON, or 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 often used to transmit data between a server and a web application, as well as for configuration files and data storage.
JSON is a text format that consists of key-value pairs, where keys are strings and values can be strings, numbers, objects, arrays, booleans, or null. The basic structure looks like this:
{
"name": "John Doe",
"age": 25,
"city": "New York",
"isStudent": false,
"grades": [90, 85, 92]
}
JSON and Python
In Python, a similar format for representing data is called a dictionary. Python dictionaries have a syntax that is quite similar to JSON. Here’s the equivalent Python representation of the above JSON:
data = {
"name": "John Doe",
"age": 25,
"city": "New York",
"isStudent": False,
"grades": [90, 85, 92]
}
Save JSON to file
To write JSON to a file in Python, you can use the built-in json module
Here’s an example:
import json
# Your data (dictionary)
data = {
"name": "John Doe",
"age": 25,
"city": "New York",
"isStudent": False,
"grades": [90, 85, 92]
}
# Specify the file path
file_path = "example.json"
# Open the file in write mode
with open(file_path, 'w') as file:
# Write the JSON data to the file
json.dump(data, file)
print(f"Data has been written to {file_path}")
In this example, json.dump() is used to write the Python dictionary (data) to a JSON file specified by the file_path. The file is opened in write mode (w), and the with statement ensures that the file is properly closed after writing.
After running this code, you’ll find a file named example.json in the same directory as your script, containing the JSON data.
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