How to Extract data from JSON File in Python

JSON is a useful data type that allows you to store large amount of diverse data types in a compact manner. It is also easy to extract, search and retrieve data from JSON. Sometimes you may need to load JSON file in Python, import JSON file in Python or just read JSON file. In this article, we will look at how to extract data from JSON file in Python.

How to Extract data from JSON File in Python

Here are the steps to extract data from JSON file in Python. We will be using the json library which comes installed in Python, by default. It offers two functions json.load and json.loads to load JSON data in Python. We will look at which one to use when.

Let us say you have the following JSON file at /home/ubuntu/test.json

$ sudo vi /home/ubuntu/test.json

Add the following JSON to it.

[
	{
		"Name": "Debian",
		"Version": "8",
		"Install": "apt",
		"Owner": "SPI",
		"Kernel": "4.8"
	},
	{
		"Name": "Ubuntu",
		"Version": "18.10",
		"Install": "apt",
		"Owner": "Canonical",
		"Kernel": "4.11"
	}
]

Save and Close the file.

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Load JSON File in Python

Before you read a JSON file, you will need to import JSON file in Python. Here is the command to do it. Let us say the above JSON file is located at /home/ubuntu/test.json

Here is the code to load JSON file in Python. We will use json.load function to load a JSON file

>>> import json
>>> json_data = json.load('/home/ubuntu/test.json')
>>> json_data[0].name
>>> Debian

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On the other hand, if you have json object then you need to use json.loads function. Here is an example.

>>> test_data = '{"a": 1, "b": 2, "c": 3, "d": 4, "e": 5}'
>>> import json
>>> json_data = json.loads(test_data)
>>> print json_data
>>> {u'a': 1, u'c': 3, u'b': 2, u'e': 5, u'd': 4}
>>> print json_data['a']
>>> 1

That’s it. Use json.load() to import files and json.loads() to load strings in Python. As you can see it is quite easy to work with JSON files in Python.