Convert a string to JSON

Question

I would like to convert this string to a JSON dict:

{u'Processes': [[u'root', u'3606', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'76768', u'16664', u'?', u'Ss', u'20:40', u'0:01', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0'], [u'root', u'4088', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'88544', u'20156', u'?', u'S', u'20:40', u'0:00', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0'], [u'root', u'4090', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'88552', u'20140', u'?', u'S', u'20:40', u'0:00', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0'], [u'root', u'4097', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'88552', u'20112', u'?', u'S', u'20:40', u'0:00', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0'], [u'root', u'4110', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'88548', u'20160', u'?', u'S', u'20:40', u'0:00', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0']], u'Titles': [u'USER', u'PID', u'%CPU', u'%MEM', u'VSZ', u'RSS', u'TTY', u'STAT', u'START', u'TIME', u'COMMAND']}

So I used json.dumps and json.loads but the output was not a valid JSON. I understand that JSON needs double quotes instead of simple quotes, but I don't think that the solution is to search and replace is the best way to resolve this problem. Is there a more proper way to do it ?

Answer 1

Try this,

import json
data = {u'Processes': [[u'root', u'3606', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'76768', u'16664', u'?', u'Ss', u'20:40', u'0:01', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0'], [u'root', u'4088', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'88544', u'20156', u'?', u'S', u'20:40', u'0:00', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0'], [u'root', u'4090', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'88552', u'20140', u'?', u'S', u'20:40', u'0:00', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0'], [u'root', u'4097', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'88552', u'20112', u'?', u'S', u'20:40', u'0:00', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0'], [u'root', u'4110', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'88548', u'20160', u'?', u'S', u'20:40', u'0:00', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0']], u'Titles': [u'USER', u'PID', u'%CPU', u'%MEM', u'VSZ', u'RSS', u'TTY', u'STAT', u'START', u'TIME', u'COMMAND']}
data = json.dumps(data) # dict to string
data = json.loads(data) # string to json
print data['Processes']

Answer 2

Use ast.literal_eval to convert string to valid Python object.

Safely evaluate an expression node or a string containing a Python literal or container display. The string or node provided may only consist of the following Python literal structures: strings, bytes, numbers, tuples, lists, dicts, sets, booleans, and None.

s = "{u'Processes': [[u'root', u'3606', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'76768', u'16664', u'?', u'Ss', u'20:40', u'0:01', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0'], [u'root', u'4088', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'88544', u'20156', u'?', u'S', u'20:40', u'0:00', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0'], [u'root', u'4090', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'88552', u'20140', u'?', u'S', u'20:40', u'0:00', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0'], [u'root', u'4097', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'88552', u'20112', u'?', u'S', u'20:40', u'0:00', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0'], [u'root', u'4110', u'0.0', u'0.2', u'88548', u'20160', u'?', u'S', u'20:40', u'0:00', u'/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0']], u'Titles': [u'USER', u'PID', u'%CPU', u'%MEM', u'VSZ', u'RSS', u'TTY', u'STAT', u'START', u'TIME', u'COMMAND']}"
o = ast.literal_eval(s)
assert 'Processes' in o

Use json.dumps to dump it to JSON string.

import json
json.dumps(o)
# '{"Titles": ["USER", "PID", "%CPU", "%MEM", "VSZ", "RSS", "TTY", "STAT", "START", "TIME", "COMMAND"], "Processes": [["root", "3606", "0.0", "0.2", "76768", "16664", "?", "Ss", "20:40", "0:01", "/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0"], ["root", "4088", "0.0", "0.2", "88544", "20156", "?", "S", "20:40", "0:00", "/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0"], ["root", "4090", "0.0", "0.2", "88552", "20140", "?", "S", "20:40", "0:00", "/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0"], ["root", "4097", "0.0", "0.2", "88552", "20112", "?", "S", "20:40", "0:00", "/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0"], ["root", "4110", "0.0", "0.2", "88548", "20160", "?", "S", "20:40", "0:00", "/usr/local/bin/python2 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn app:app -b 0.0.0.0:80 --log-file - --access-logfile - --workers 4 --keep-alive 0"]]}'

Or use json.dump to dump it to file object, if that's what you want.