To pretty print JSON in Python, use the json.dumps() method with the indent parameter to format the output with readable indentation.
Using json.dumps() (Recommended for JSON strings)
import json
data = {"name": "Alice", "age": 30, "city": "New York", "hobbies": ["reading", "coding"]}
pretty_json = json.dumps(data, indent=2)
print(pretty_json)indent=2adds 2 spaces per indentation level (commonly used).Use
indent=4for more spacing orindent='\t'for tab indentation.Add
sort_keys=Trueto alphabetically sort keys for consistent output.Use
ensure_ascii=Falseto preserve Unicode characters (e.g., "São Paulo", "日本").
Using json.dump() to Save to a File
with open('output.json', 'w') as f:
json.dump(data, f, indent=2, sort_keys=True)This writes a formatted, readable JSON file.
Using pprint (For Python objects, not JSON strings)
import pprint
pprint.pprint(data)Useful for debugging Python dictionaries/lists.
Replaces double quotes with single quotes, so output is not valid JSON.
✅ Best Practice: Use
json.dumps(data, indent=2)for pretty printing JSON strings or saving formatted JSON files. Usepprintonly for inspecting Python data structures.
Use the indent= parameter of json.dump() or json.dumps() to specify how many spaces to indent by:
>>> import json
>>> your_json = '["foo", {"bar": ["baz", null, 1.0, 2]}]'
>>> parsed = json.loads(your_json)
>>> print(json.dumps(parsed, indent=4))
[
"foo",
{
"bar": [
"baz",
null,
1.0,
2
]
}
]
To parse a file, use json.load():
with open('filename.txt', 'r') as handle:
parsed = json.load(handle)
Use the indent= parameter of json.dump() or json.dumps() to specify how many spaces to indent by:
>>> import json
>>> your_json = '["foo", {"bar": ["baz", null, 1.0, 2]}]'
>>> parsed = json.loads(your_json)
>>> print(json.dumps(parsed, indent=4))
[
"foo",
{
"bar": [
"baz",
null,
1.0,
2
]
}
]
To parse a file, use json.load():
with open('filename.txt', 'r') as handle:
parsed = json.load(handle)
You can do this on the command line:
python3 -m json.tool some.json
(as already mentioned in the commentaries to the question, thanks to @Kai Petzke for the python3 suggestion).
Actually python is not my favourite tool as far as json processing on the command line is concerned. For simple pretty printing is ok, but if you want to manipulate the json it can become overcomplicated. You'd soon need to write a separate script-file, you could end up with maps whose keys are u"some-key" (python unicode), which makes selecting fields more difficult and doesn't really go in the direction of pretty-printing.
You can also use jq:
jq . some.json
and you get colors as a bonus (and way easier extendability).
Addendum: There is some confusion in the comments about using jq to process large JSON files on the one hand, and having a very large jq program on the other. For pretty-printing a file consisting of a single large JSON entity, the practical limitation is RAM. For pretty-printing a 2GB file consisting of a single array of real-world data, the "maximum resident set size" required for pretty-printing was 5GB (whether using jq 1.5 or 1.6). Note also that jq can be used from within python after pip install jq.
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Videos
Hello Everyone,
I've hit a frustrating wall and after much googling I took a deep breath and felt the best approach was to ask you all for advice.
I'm making a very simple script and need assistance with what tool I should use to move forward.
Step 1: Fetch the URL Step 2: Make the JSON pretty. Such as a top-down listing of Title and URL only.
import requests
#make the URL call
page = requests.get('http://gleamlist.com:5000/api')
#verify the page has content - just for testing.
print(page.content)I've tried using the json module but confuse myself and I've thought maybe BS4 would help but also confuse myself. I believe JSON is basically a dictionary and I want to parse out the info. Could anyone assist me with some tips or a specific topic to research and implement please?