Python JSON serialize a Decimal object

Question

I have a Decimal(\'3.9\') as part of an object, and wish to encode this to a JSON string which should look like {\'x\': 3.9}. I don\'t care about p

Answer 1

This is what I have, extracted from our class

class CommonJSONEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):

    """
    Common JSON Encoder
    json.dumps(myString, cls=CommonJSONEncoder)
    """

    def default(self, obj):

        if isinstance(obj, decimal.Decimal):
            return {'type{decimal}': str(obj)}

class CommonJSONDecoder(json.JSONDecoder):

    """
    Common JSON Encoder
    json.loads(myString, cls=CommonJSONEncoder)
    """

    @classmethod
    def object_hook(cls, obj):
        for key in obj:
            if isinstance(key, six.string_types):
                if 'type{decimal}' == key:
                    try:
                        return decimal.Decimal(obj[key])
                    except:
                        pass

    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        kwargs['object_hook'] = self.object_hook
        super(CommonJSONDecoder, self).__init__(**kwargs)

Which passes unittest:

def test_encode_and_decode_decimal(self):
    obj = Decimal('1.11')
    result = json.dumps(obj, cls=CommonJSONEncoder)
    self.assertTrue('type{decimal}' in result)
    new_obj = json.loads(result, cls=CommonJSONDecoder)
    self.assertEqual(new_obj, obj)

    obj = {'test': Decimal('1.11')}
    result = json.dumps(obj, cls=CommonJSONEncoder)
    self.assertTrue('type{decimal}' in result)
    new_obj = json.loads(result, cls=CommonJSONDecoder)
    self.assertEqual(new_obj, obj)

    obj = {'test': {'abc': Decimal('1.11')}}
    result = json.dumps(obj, cls=CommonJSONEncoder)
    self.assertTrue('type{decimal}' in result)
    new_obj = json.loads(result, cls=CommonJSONDecoder)
    self.assertEqual(new_obj, obj)