JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. It is a format that encodes the data in string format. JSON is language independent and because of that, it is used for storing or transferring data in files. The conversion of data from JSON object string is known as Serialization and its opposite string JSON object is known as Deserialization. JSON Object is defined using curly braces{} and consists of a key-value pair. It is important to note that the JSON object key is a string and its value can be any primitive(e.g. int, string, null) or complex data types(e.g. array).
Example of JSON Object:
{
"id":101,
"company" : "GeeksForGeeks"
}
Complex JSON objects are those objects that contain a nested object inside the other. Example of Complex JSON Object.
{
"id":101,
"company" : "GeeksForGeeks",
"Topics" : { "Data Structure",
"Algorithm",
"Gate Topics" }
}
Serialization & Deserialization
Python and the JSON module is working extremely well with dictionaries. For serializing and deserializing of JSON objects Python “__dict__” can be used. There is the __dict__ on any Python object, which is a dictionary used to store an object’s (writable) attributes. We can use that for working with JSON, and that works well.
Code:
Python3
import jsonclass GFG_User(object): def __init__(self, first_name: str, last_name: str): self.first_name = first_name self.last_name = last_name user = GFG_User(first_name="Jake", last_name="Doyle")json_data = json.dumps(user.__dict__)print(json_data)print(GFG_User(**json.loads(json_data))) |
Output:
{"first_name": "Jake", "last_name": "Doyle"}
__main__.GFG_User object at 0x105ca7278
Note: The double asterisks ** in the GFG_User(**json.load(json_data) line may look confusing. But all it does is expanding the dictionary.
Complex Objects
Now things get tricky while dealing with complex JSON objects as our trick “__dict__” doesn’t work anymore.
Code:
Python3
from typing import Listimport jsonclass Student(object): def __init__(self, first_name: str, last_name: str): self.first_name = first_name self.last_name = last_nameclass Team(object): def __init__(self, students: List[Student]): self.students = studentsstudent1 = Student(first_name="Geeky", last_name="Guy")student2 = Student(first_name="GFG", last_name="Rocks")team = Team(students=[student1, student2])json_data = json.dumps(team.__dict__, indent=4)print(json_data) |
Output:
TypeError: Object of type Student is not JSON serializable
But if you look at the documentation of dump function you will see there is a default setting that we can use. Simply by replacing this line:
json_data = json.dumps(team.__dict__, indent=4)
By this line:
json_data = json.dumps(team.__dict__, default=lambda o: o.__dict__, indent=4)
And everything works now as before. Now, let’s look at Deserializing:
Code:
Python3
from typing import Listimport jsonclass Student(object): def __init__(self, first_name: str, last_name: str): self.first_name = first_name self.last_name = last_nameclass Team(object): def __init__(self, students: List[Student]): self.students = studentsstudent1 = Student(first_name="Geeky", last_name="Guy")student2 = Student(first_name="GFG", last_name="Rocks")team = Team(students=[student1, student2])# Serializationjson_data = json.dumps(team, default=lambda o: o.__dict__, indent=4)print(json_data)# Deserializationdecoded_team = Team(**json.loads(json_data))print(decoded_team) |
Output:
{
"students": [
{
"first_name": "Geeky",
"last_name": "Guy"
},
{
"first_name": "GFG",
"last_name": "Rocks"
}
]
}
__main__.Team object at 0x105cd41d0
