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JSON
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.. image:: /_static/photos/33928819683_97b5c6a184_k_d.jpg

The `json <https://docs.python.org/3/library/json.html>`_ library can parse
JSON from strings or files. The library parses JSON into a Python dictionary
or list. It can also convert Python dictionaries or lists into JSON strings.


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Parsing JSON
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Take the following string containing JSON data:

.. code-block:: python

    json_string = '{"first_name": "Guido", "last_name":"Rossum"}'

It can be parsed like this:

.. code-block:: python

    import json
    parsed_json = json.loads(json_string)

and can now be used as a normal dictionary:

.. code-block:: python

    print(parsed_json['first_name'])
    "Guido"

You can also convert the following to JSON:

.. code-block:: python

    d = {
        'first_name': 'Guido',
        'second_name': 'Rossum',
        'titles': ['BDFL', 'Developer'],
    }

    print(json.dumps(d))
    '{"first_name": "Guido", "last_name": "Rossum", "titles": ["BDFL", "Developer"]}'