Python String to List object

Question

I have this String (representing a JSON value):

BABEL_JSON = "{
    'BD': u'Bangladesh', 
    'WF': u'Wallis y Futuna', 
    'BF': u'Burkina Faso'
}"

and I need to transform into a List object like this:

BABEL_LIST = [
    ("BD", u"Bangladesh"),
    ("WF", u"Wallis y Futuna"),
    ("BF", u"Burkina Faso")
]

What is the best way? to begin I tried with:

import json
BABEL_LIST = json.loads(str(BABEL_JSON))

but I have this error:

TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable

That isn't valid JSON. If BABEL_JSON was a dictionary, you could just use BABEL_JSON.items() to get BABEL_LIST. — Blender
– Blender, Commented Oct 8, 2012 at 5:52

DhruvPathak · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-08 06:13:46Z

3

You need to use literal eval as your content is not valid JSON, it is a python dictionary as a string.

literal eval safely evaluates valid python objects.

import ast


BABEL_JSON = """{                                                               
    'BD': u'Bangladesh',                                                        
    'WF': u'Wallis y Futuna',                                                   
    'BF': u'Burkina Faso'                                                       
}"""

myDict = ast.literal_eval(BABEL_JSON)
print(myDict.items())

answered Oct 8, 2012 at 6:13

DhruvPathak

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Comments

halex · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-08 06:13:18Z

1

You don't have a valid json string. In json, strings are written with ". The u in front of a string is not allowed too. You have to transform your initial json-like string to a valid one:

import json
BABEL_JSON ="""{
    'BD': u'Bangladesh', 
    'WF': u'Wallis y Futuna', 
    'BF': u'Burkina Faso'
}"""
s = BABEL_JSON.replace(": u", ": ").replace("'", '"')
print json.loads(s).items()

See http://ideone.com/OxPml

answered Oct 8, 2012 at 6:13

halex

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Comments

Rajendra · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-08 06:14:35Z

1

import json
a = json.loads(l)
zip(a.keys(),a.values())

another way

import ast
a = ast.literal_eval(l)
zip(a.keys(),a.values())

answered Oct 8, 2012 at 6:14

Rajendra

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1 Comment

John La Rooy Over a year ago

more efficient to use a.items()

Usman Salihin · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-08 06:46:53Z

0

Or use regex like this:

import re

BABEL_JSON = """{
    'BD': u'Bangladesh', 
    'WF': u'Wallis y Futuna', 
    'BF': u'Burkina Faso'
}"""

print re.findall(r"'([^']+)': u'([^']+)'", BABEL_JSON)

Output:

[('BD', 'Bangladesh'), ('WF', 'Wallis y Futuna'), ('BF', 'Burkina Faso')]

answered Oct 8, 2012 at 6:46

Usman Salihin

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Comments

coto · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-30 09:16:50Z

0

It is the best and fastest way to do it I found

BABEL_JSON = "{
    'BD': u'Bangladesh', 
    'WF': u'Wallis y Futuna', 
    'BF': u'Burkina Faso'
}"

BABEL_LIST = [(key, countries[key]) for key in BABEL_JSON]

And if you want to sort them by the name.

BABEL_LIST.sort(key=lambda tup: tup[1])

answered Dec 30, 2012 at 9:16

coto

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