Python Read JSON File
To read JSON file in Python, open file in read mode, and parse it using json.loads() function.
In this tutorial, we will learn how to read a JSON file to a string, and access elements of the JSON content.
Examples
1. Read JSON file
In this example, we read data.json file with JSON content. We will load this content into a Python object, so that we can access the elements and key:value pairs.
Following is the data.json file that we are reading in the Python program. The content is a single object with three name:value pairs.
data.json
{
"a": 21,
"b": 42,
"c": 73
}
Python Program
import json
fileObject = open("data.json", "r")
jsonContent = fileObject.read()
aList = json.loads(jsonContent)
print(aList)
print(aList['a'])
print(aList['b'])
print(aList['c'])
Output
{'a': 21, 'b': 42, 'c': 73}
21
42
73
2. Read JSON file that contains array of objects
In this example, we read data.json file with JSON content. The JSON data is an array of objects.
data.json
[
{
"a": 85,
"b": 71,
"c": 39
},
{
"d": 18,
"e": 72,
"f": 23
},
{
"g": 18,
"h": 62,
"i": 43
}
]
Python Program
import json
fileObject = open("data.json", "r")
jsonContent = fileObject.read()
aList = json.loads(jsonContent)
print(aList[0])
print(aList[0]['c'])
Output
{'a': 85, 'b': 71, 'c': 39}
39
Summary
In this Python JSON Tutorial, we learned how to read JSON file in Python and access values from the JSON content.