How to get value / content in JSON object with python

Question

import json
import urllib
import urllib2
url = "https://www.virustotal.com/vtapi/v2/file/report"
parameters = {"resource": "2aa837802b1c7867a65067525a843566029bd97e3ce99f6eb55217e219043ae1",
         "apikey": "123123123123123123"}
data = urllib.urlencode(parameters)
req = urllib2.Request(url, data)
response = urllib2.urlopen(req)

json_object = json.load(response)

print json_object['scans']

Could you guys help with with how to get a specific value in the JSON object that my code returns? The code connects to VirusTotal to get object scan results.

I tried to print it with the last line of code but it prints the whole output.

The JSON object looks like this:

{
    "scans": {
        "TotalDefense": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "37.0.10022",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "nProtect": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "2012-08-09.02",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "CAT-QuickHeal": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "12.00",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "McAfee": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "5.400.0.1158",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "K7AntiVirus": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "9.145.7456",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120808"
        },
        "TheHacker": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "None",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120808"
        },
        "VirusBuster": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "15.0.138.0",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "F-Prot": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "4.6.5.141",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "Symantec": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "20121.1.0.298",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "Norman": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "6.08.06",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "ByteHero": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "1.0.0.1",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120723"
        },
        "TrendMicro-HouseCall": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "9.500.0.1008",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "Avast": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "6.0.1289.0",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "eSafe": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "7.0.17.0",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120808"
        },
        "ClamAV": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "0.97.3.0",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "Kaspersky": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "9.0.0.837",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "BitDefender": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "7.2",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "ViRobot": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "2011.4.7.4223",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "Sophos": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "4.80.0",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "Comodo": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "13190",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "F-Secure": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "9.0.16440.0",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "DrWeb": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "7.0.3.07130",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "VIPRE": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "12556",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "AntiVir": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "7.11.39.82",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "TrendMicro": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "9.561.0.1027",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "McAfee-GW-Edition": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "2012.1",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120808"
        },
        "Emsisoft": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "5.1.0.11",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "Jiangmin": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "13.0.900",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "Antiy-AVL": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "2.0.3.7",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120808"
        },
        "Microsoft": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "1.8601",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "SUPERAntiSpyware": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "4.40.0.1006",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "GData": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "22",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "Commtouch": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "5.3.2.6",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "AhnLab-V3": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "2012.08.09.00",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120808"
        },
        "VBA32": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "3.12.18.2",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "PCTools": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "8.0.0.5",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "ESET-NOD32": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "7370",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "Rising": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "24.22.02.05",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "Ikarus": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "T3.1.1.122.0",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "Fortinet": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "4.3.398.0",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "AVG": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "10.0.0.1190",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        },
        "Panda": {
            "detected": false,
            "version": "10.0.3.5",
            "result": null,
            "update": "20120809"
        }
    },
    "scan_id": "2aa837802b1c7867a65067525a843566029bd97e3ce99f6eb55217e219043ae1-1344514045",
    "sha1": "1bebf3ff83636e19cb8e26b6d46472c614aac7ab",
    "resource": "2aa837802b1c7867a65067525a843566029bd97e3ce99f6eb55217e219043ae1",
    "response_code": 1,
    "scan_date": "2012-08-09 12:07:25",
    "permalink": "https://www.virustotal.com/file/2aa837802b1c7867a65067525a843566029bd97e3ce99f6eb55217e219043ae1/analysis/1344514045/",
    "verbose_msg": "Scan finished, scan information embedded in this object",
    "total": 42,
    "positives": 0,
    "sha256": "2aa837802b1c7867a65067525a843566029bd97e3ce99f6eb55217e219043ae1",
    "md5": "6aadd888170411af8aaa0bd8ebffeba4"
}

Answer 1

Use json.loads it will convert the json string to a dict containing dicts, list, etc.

Edit 2: You can access each item like this: json_object['scans']['TotalDefense']['version'] contd. But you may also need to json.loads(json.load(response)) as I mentioned in my comment below.

Edit 1: In your example, we should not be seeing "scans" again for print json_object['scans'].

---

From http://docs.python.org/library/json.html:

>>> import json
>>> json.loads('["foo", {"bar":["baz", null, 1.0, 2]}]')
[u'foo', {u'bar': [u'baz', None, 1.0, 2]}]

That page also has info on how to do more complex decoding.