How to iterate over a JSON object in Python?

In this Python tutorial, we will learn about different ways to iterate over a JSON object.

Agenda

Introduction

JSON stands for Javascript object notation. Using JSON, we can store the data in key-value pair format. The main advantage of JSON is we can easily understand the data.

JSON Structure:

{ 
    string: value, string: value,..............
}

Let’s see the ways to iterate over a JSON object.

Iterate over JSON Object using the loads() method with for loop

In this scenario,

• we are going to create a JSON string and load it into a dictionary using the loads() method.

Syntax:

loaded = json.loads(input_json_string)

where input_json_string is the JSON string or object

• Iterate that dictionary (loaded) using for loop with an iterator.

Syntax:

for iterator in loaded:
    print(iterator, ":", loaded[iterator])

where the iterator is used to iterate the keys in a dictionary. Let’s see the example, to understand it better.

In this example, we created a JSON string with 5 elements and iterate using for loop.

# import JSON module
import json

# Consider the json string with 5 values
input_json_string = '{  "tutorial-1": "python", \
                        "tutorial-2": "c++",    \
                        "tutorial-3": "pandas", \
                        "tutorial-4": "numpy",  \
                        "tutorial-5": ".net"}'

# Load input_json_string into a dictionary-loaded
loaded = json.loads(input_json_string)

# Loop along dictionary keys
for iterator in loaded:
    print(iterator, ":", loaded[iterator])

Output:

tutorial-1 : python
tutorial-2 : c++
tutorial-3 : pandas
tutorial-4 : numpy
tutorial-5 : .net

From the output, we can see that all the values present in JSON are iterated.

Example 2:

If there are multiple values attached to a string element, the loads() method works fine. Let’s see how to iterate over all values in a list.

import json

# Consider the json string with 5 key value pairs, where each value is a list
input_json_string = '{  "tutorial-1": ["subject1","subject2","subject3"],  \
                        "tutorial-2":  ["subject1","subject2","subject3"], \
                        "tutorial-3":  ["subject1","subject2","subject3"], \
                        "tutorial-4":  ["subject1","subject2","subject3"], \
                        "tutorial-5":  ["subject1","subject2","subject3"] }'

# Load input_json_string into a dictionary-loaded
loaded = json.loads(input_json_string)

# Loop along dictionary keys
for iterator in loaded:
    print(iterator, ":", loaded[iterator])

Output:

tutorial-1 : ['subject1', 'subject2', 'subject3']
tutorial-2 : ['subject1', 'subject2', 'subject3']
tutorial-3 : ['subject1', 'subject2', 'subject3']
tutorial-4 : ['subject1', 'subject2', 'subject3']
tutorial-5 : ['subject1', 'subject2', 'subject3']

In the above code, we assigned 5 values for all string elements and iterated using for loop.

Example 3:

Here, we consider the json string with 2 string elements and with 3 key-value pairs. Load them in a dictionary and iterate using for loop.

import json

# consider the json string with 2 string elements
# with 3 key-value pairs through a dictionary
input_json_string = '{"tutorial-1": {"subject1":"python",   \
                                     "subject2":"php",      \
                                     "subject3":"node.js"}, \
                      "tutorial-2": {"subject1":"java",     \
                                     "subject2":"android",  \
                                      "subject3":"css" } }'

# Load input_json_string into a dictionary-loaded
loaded = json.loads(input_json_string)

#Loop along dictionary keys
for iterator in loaded:
    print(iterator, ":", loaded[iterator])

Output:

tutorial-1 : {'subject1': 'python', 'subject2': 'php', 'subject3': 'node.js'}
tutorial-2 : {'subject1': 'java', 'subject2': 'android', 'subject3': 'css'}

Iterate over JSON file using load() and for loop

Here, the json string is available in a file and we have to open that file and access the json string from it.

Step 1: Open the file.

By using the open() method, we can open the file along ‘with’ keyword

Syntax:

with open('file_name.json') as value:

where, file_name is the name of the json file where, json data is stored.

Step 2: Load the json string into a variable

json.load(value)

Step 3: Iterate that dictionary using for loop with an iterator.

Syntax:

for iterator in loaded:
    print(iterator, ":", loaded[iterator])

Example 1:

In this example, we placed a json string with 5 elements in a file named – tutorial1.json and then load into a dictionary and iterate using for loop.

JSON string in file: tutorial1.json

{"tutorial-1": "python", "tutorial-2": "c++", "tutorial-3": "pandas", "tutorial-4": "numpy","tutorial-5": ".net"}

Code to load json string from file and then iterating over it is as follows,

import json

# load the json file
with open('tutorial1.json') as value:
    #load each element using load() function
    dictionary = json.load(value)
    # iterate the dictionary
    for iterator in dictionary:
        print(iterator, ":", dictionary[iterator])

Output:

tutorial-1 : python
tutorial-2 : c++
tutorial-3 : pandas
tutorial-4 : numpy
tutorial-5 : .net

From the output, we can see that all the values present in JSON file are iterated.

Example 2:

In this example, we placed a json string in a file named – tutorial.json. JSON String has with 5 elements, that have 5 values each. Then we loaded json string into a dictionary and iterated using for loop.

JSON string in file

{"tutorial-1": ["subject1","subject2","subject3"],
"tutorial-2":  ["subject1","subject2","subject3"], 
"tutorial-3":  ["subject1","subject2","subject3"], 
"tutorial-4":  ["subject1","subject2","subject3"],
"tutorial-5":  ["subject1","subject2","subject3"]}

Code to load json string from file and then iterating over it is as follows,

import json

#load the json file
with open('tutorial.json') as value:
    # load each element using load() function
    dictionary = json.load(value)
    # iterate the dictionary
    for iterator in dictionary:
        print(iterator, ":", dictionary[iterator])

Output:

tutorial-1 : ['subject1', 'subject2', 'subject3']
tutorial-2 : ['subject1', 'subject2', 'subject3']
tutorial-3 : ['subject1', 'subject2', 'subject3']
tutorial-4 : ['subject1', 'subject2', 'subject3']
tutorial-5 : ['subject1', 'subject2', 'subject3']

From the output, we can see that all the values present in JSON file are iterated.

Example 3: In this example, we will consider the json string with 2 string elements and with 3 key-value pairs in each of them. We will load it in a dictionary and iterate using for loop.

JSON string in file

{"tutorial-1": {"subject1":"python","subject2":"php","subject3":"node.js"},
"tutorial-2": {"subject1":"java","subject2":"android","subject3":"css"}}

Code to load json string from file and then iterating over it is as follows,

import json

#load the json file
with open('tutorial.json') as value:
    #load each element using load() function
    dictionary = json.load(value)

    #iterate the dictionary
    for iterator in dictionary:
        print(iterator, ":", dictionary[iterator])

Output:

tutorial-1 : {'subject1': 'python', 'subject2': 'php', 'subject3': 'node.js'}
tutorial-2 : {'subject1': 'java', 'subject2': 'android', 'subject3': 'css'}

From the output, we can see that all the key-value pairs within the string element present in JSON file are iterated.

Summary

From this tutorial, we learned about two ways to iterate a JSON object using the load() method and for loop. So based on the need, you can use the above-discussed methods. Happy Learning.