What is JSON?

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format used for storing and exchanging data between a server and a client (like a website or app).

It is language-independent and easy to read/write for both humans and machines.

Why Use JSON in Python?:

Exchange data between Python and web APIs.
Store structured data (e.g., settings, configurations).
Easily serialize Python objects.

Python & JSON Integration

Python comes with a built-in module called json to work with JSON data.

import json

Converting Between JSON and Python

JSON	Python Equivalent
`Object`	dict
`Array`	list
`String`	str
`Number`	int or float
`true / false`	True / False
`null`	None

Convert Python → JSON (json.dumps( ))

import json

data = {"name": "Alice", "age": 25, "is_student": False}
json_string = json.dumps(data)

print(json_string)
# Output: {"name": "Alice", "age": 25, "is_student": false}

You can also pretty print it :

print(json.dumps(data, indent=4))

Convert JSON → Python (json.loads( ))

json_data = '{"name": "Alice", "age": 25}'
python_dict = json.loads(json_data)

print(python_dict["name"])  # Output: Alice

Working with JSON Files

Write to a JSON file

data = {"name": "Bob", "age": 30}

with open("data.json", "w") as file:
    json.dump(data, file, indent=4)

Read from a JSON file

with open("data.json", "r") as file:
    loaded_data = json.load(file)
print(loaded_data)

Advanced Options in json Module

Function	Use Case
`json.dumps( )`	Convert Python → JSON string
`json.dump( )`	Write Python object to file (as JSON)
`json.loads( )`	Parse JSON string → Python object
`json.load( )`	Read JSON from file → Python object
`sort_keys=True`	Sort keys in output JSON
`indent=4`	Pretty-print JSON

Example Use Case

import json

person = {"name": "John", "skills": ["Python", "Django"], "active": True}

# Convert and save
with open("person.json", "w") as f:
    json.dump(person, f, indent=2)

# Load and access
with open("person.json") as f:
    data = json.load(f)
    print(data["skills"][0])  # Output: Python

Summary

Use json module to work with JSON data in Python.
Convert between JSON strings and Python objects.
Easily read/write JSON files for APIs and data storage.