How to beautify JSON in Python?

Question

Can someone suggest how I can beautify JSON in Python or through the command line?

The only online based JSON beautifier which could do it was: http://jsonviewer.stack.h

Answer 1

Use the python tool library

Command line: python -mjson.tool

In code: http://docs.python.org/library/json.html

Answer 2

First install pygments

then

echo '<some json>' | python -m json.tool | pygmentize -l json

Answer 3

I didn't like the output of json.dumps(...) -> For my taste way too much newlines. And I didn't want to use a command line tool or install something. I finally found Pythons pprint (= pretty print). Unfortunately it doesn't generate proper JSON but I think it is useful to have a user friendly glympse at the stored data.

Output of json.dumps(json_dict, indent=4)

{
    "hyperspace": {
        "constraints": [],
        "design": [
            [
                "windFarm.windparkSize.k",
                "continuous",
                [
                    0,
                    0,
                    5
                ]
            ],
            [
                "hydroPlant.primaryControlMax",
                "continuous",
                [
                    100,
                    300
                ]
            ]
        ],
        "kpis": [
            "frequency.y",
            "city.load.p[2]"
        ]
    },
    "lhc_size": 10,
    "number_of_runs": 10
}

Usage of pprint:

import pprint

json_dict = {"hyperspace": {"constraints": [], "design": [["windFarm.windparkSize.k", "continuous", [0, 0, 5]], ["hydroPlant.primaryControlMax", "continuous", [100, 300]]], "kpis": ["frequency.y", "city.load.p[2]"]}, "lhc_size": 10, "number_of_runs": 10}

formatted_json_str = pprint.pformat(json_dict)
print(formatted_json_str)
pprint.pprint(json_dict)

Result of pprint.pformat(...) or pprint.pprint(...):

{'hyperspace': {'constraints': [],
                'design': [['windFarm.windparkSize.k', 'continuous', [0, 0, 5]],
                           ['hydroPlant.primaryControlMax',
                            'continuous',
                            [100, 300]]],
                'kpis': ['frequency.y', 'city.load.p[2]']},
 'lhc_size': 10,
 'number_of_runs': 10}

Answer 4

Try underscore-cli:

cat myfile.json | underscore print --color

It's a pretty nifty tool that can elegantly do a lot of manipulation of structured data, execute js snippets, fill templates, etc. It's ridiculously well documented, polished, and ready for serious use. And I wrote it. :)

Answer 5

Use the indent argument of the dumps function in the json module.

From the docs:

>>> import json
>>> print json.dumps({'4': 5, '6': 7}, sort_keys=True, indent=4)
{
    "4": 5,
    "6": 7
}

Answer 6

alias jsonp='pbpaste | python -m json.tool'

This will pretty print JSON that's on the clipboard in OSX. Just Copy it then call the alias from a Bash prompt.