Python how convert single quotes to double quotes to format as json string

Question

I have a file where on each line I have text like this (representing cast of a film):

[{\'cast_id\': 23, \'character\': \"Roger \'Verbal\' Kint\", \'credit_i         


        

Answer 1

First of all, the line you gave as example is not parsable! … 'Edie's Finneran' … contains a syntax error, not matter what.

Assuming that you have control over the input, you could simply use eval() to read in the file. (Although, in that case one would wonder why you can't produce valid JSON in the first place…)

>>> f = open('list.txt', 'r')
>>> s = f.read().strip()
>>> l = eval(s)

>>> import pprint
>>> pprint.pprint(l)
[{'cast_id': 23,
  'character': "Roger 'Verbal' Kint",
  ...
  'profile_path': '/b1pjkncyLuBtMUmqD1MztD2SG80.jpg'}]

>>> import json
>>> json.dumps(l)
'[{"cast_id": 23, "character": "Roger \'Verbal\' Kint", "credit_id": "52fe4260ca36847f8019af7", "gender": 2, "id": 1979, "name": "Kevin Spacey", "order": 5, "rofile_path": "/x7wF050iuCASefLLG75s2uDPFUu.jpg"}, {"cast_id": 27, "character":"Edie\'s Finneran", "credit_id": "52fe4260c3a36847f8019b07", "gender": 1, "id":2179, "name": "Suzy Amis", "order": 6, "profile_path": "/b1pjkncyLuBtMUmqD1MztDSG80.jpg"}]'

If you don't have control over the input, this is very dangerous, as it opens you up to code injection attacks.

I cannot emphasize enough that the best solution would be to produce valid JSON in the first place.