How do I write JSON data to a file?

Question

I have JSON data stored in the variable `data`.I want to write this to a text file for testing so I don't have to grab the data from the server each time.Currently, I am trying this: obj = open('data.txt', 'wb') obj.write(data) obj.closeAnd am receiving the error: `TypeError: must be string or buffer, not dict`How to fix this?

Answer 1

You are trying to write a dictionary as if it were a string. Fortunately, Python has a `json` package that makes your task very simple! To write JSON data (stored as a Python dictionary) to a file, use the json.dump() function:

import json

my_json_data = ...

with open("my_data.json", 'w') as output_file:

json.dump(my_json_data, output_file)

Alternatively, if you wanted to convert your JSON data to a string without writing it to a file right away, there is another function you can use, json.dumps(). This will allow you to do string manipulations if you wish. Once you have your JSON string in its final form, you can write it to a file like you were trying to do.

import json

my_json_data = ...

my_json_str = json.dumps(my_json_data)

my_json_str = "This is my JSON data:\n" + my_json_str

with open("output.txt", 'w') as output_file:

output_file.write(my_json_str)